The liberal Supreme Court of Wisconsin has a fresh controversy on its hands over the rules in the swing state's elections.

The court has agreed to review the legality of ballot collection vans, after a so-called mobile voting site was rolled out in Racine, a liberal stronghold.

The conservatives on the court furiously accused their liberal colleagues of trying to impact the 2024 election by rushing the case.

Wisconsin election ruling ahead

The unusual method of collecting absentee ballots was rolled out in 2022 with financial support from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit linked with Mark Zuckerberg.

In 2020, Zuckerberg poured millions of dollars to support Democratic turnout through the nonprofit, leading to a successful push to ban "Zuckerbucks" in Wisconsin last month.

Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz ruled the ballot van illegal in a January decision.

"Nowhere can this Court find or has been provided any authority allowing the use of a van or vehicle as an alternate absentee voting vehicle,” the judge wrote.

Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appealed to the state's Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case 4-3 while bypassing the ordinary appeals process.

Why the rush?

The split ruling was the latest sign of contention on the court, which shifted to the left after an expensive, high-stakes election last year.

In a controversial move, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose win gave liberals a majority, declined to recuse herself from the controversy over ballot collection vans.

The Supreme Court's conservatives accused the liberal wing of trying to boost Democrats in the upcoming elections.

"This new majority seems unable to resist the allure of political control. On any legally meritorious metric, we should not be granting the petitions for
bypass now," conservative judge Annette Ziegler wrote.

The conservatives raised questions about the rush to hear the case, which they called premature.

"Is this yet another example of this court demonstrating its partisan political will in order to achieve a predetermined outcome designed to affect the fall elections?"

Election rules in dispute

The Supreme Court has also been asked by the state's Democratic governor to restore the use of ballot drop-boxes, which exploded in use in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court banned drop boxes in 2022, but that was before the court shifted to the left.