The mayor of a central Wisconsin city who ran for office on his opposition to absentee ballot drop boxes said Wednesday that he did nothing wrong when he put on work gloves, donned a hard hat and used a dolly to cart away a drop box outside City Hall.

Wausau Mayor Doug Diny posed for a picture Sunday to memorialize his removal of the city’s lone drop box that had been put outside City Hall around the same time late last week that absentee ballots were sent to voters. The city’s election clerk, Kaitlyn Bernarde, said she has reported the issue to the Marathon County district attorney a well as the state elections commission.

“This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there,” Diny said Wednesday. “I’m a member of staff. There’s nothing nefarious going on here.”

The move, which sparked a protest in the city Tuesday night and anger among drop box advocates, is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will allow absentee ballot drop boxes.

More than 60 towns, villages and cities in nine counties have opted out of using absentee ballot drop boxes for the presidential election in November, according to a tally by the group All Voting is Local. Drop boxes are being embraced in heavily Democratic cities including Milwaukee and Madison. Wisconsin has a total of 72 counties.

Drop boxes were widely used in 2020, fueled by an increase in absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After former President Donald Trump lost the state in 2020, he and Republicans alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating, even though they offered no evidence. Democrats, election officials and some Republicans argued the boxes are secure.

Wausau, with about 40,000 people, was among the cities that did not use an absentee drop box in the August state primary.

Diny said that he and the city clerk never discussed the drop box before it was placed outside City Hall late last week. Diny said he decided Sunday to act when he realized the drop box was “not secure.”

Bernarde said Wednesday that the city planned to “secure the drop box to the ground” and unlock it, but it was removed before that could be done. The box was locked and contained no ballots, she said.