Mayor of battleground state city caught on camera moving ballot box: 'You can’t do that'

Doug Diny, mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin, was caught on video moving an "outdoor ballot drop box inside" earlier this week "while sporting a Department of Public Works jacket and hard hat," the Wausau Pilot and Review reports.

"I have huge concerns about this behavior, as there is no place for elected officials to manage, alter or tamper with drop boxes, whether they agree with their use or not," City Council President Lisa Rasmussen told the Wausau Pilot. "I have voiced my concerns to the mayor about his conduct, and requested he return the box and issue a public apology to the clerk and the community, as his actions violate the public trust and likely also the law."

The mayor, according to the report, "on Tuesday admitted he moved the drop box to his office on Sept. 22 and 'took a few photos to memorialize the action.'"

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Although Rasmussen called for a public apology from the mayor, voting rights-focused nonprofit firm Law Forward staff attorney Scott Thompson told the news outlet "he would need more facts to before commenting on whether" Diny broke the law.

Furthermore, Thompson "said that 'what is clear is that in Wisconsin, it is illegal to impede or prevent the free exercise of the franchise during an election.'"

He emphasized, "You can’t do that."

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Wausau Pilot and Review's full report is available here.