‘This is ridiculous’: Wisconsin holds its primary election in the middle of a pandemic

Long lines of voters, many of them wearing face masks, stretched for blocks through Milwaukee early Tuesday as Wisconsin held its primary in the middle of a pandemic.

Republicans who have insisted on keeping the election on schedule won two legal battles Monday, as the state Supreme Court blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ bid to delay it until June and the US Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling that gave voters six extra days to return their ballots by mail.

Every other state with an election scheduled for April postponed their contest or shifted it to by-mail voting only. But Monday’s court decisions mean Wisconsin — with 2,511 reported cases of coronavirus and 85 dead as of late Monday night — is pressing forward, though votes won’t be counted until at least April 13.

It has positioned Wisconsin as the first battleground over voting rights in a year in which the question of how elections are conducted could be shaped by the coronavirus pandemic, as Democrats seek funding for expanded vote-by-mail options across the nation and Republicans express concerns about election security.

Lines early Tuesday as voting began were long: So many poll workers quit that Milwaukee consolidated its 180 polling places down to just five locations — and in those locations, voters stretched around multiple blocks. Staffing at polling places looks different: Nearly 300 of the state’s National Guard troops will be replacing volunteers who quit.

And thousands of people requested absentee ballots ahead of last week’s deadline, but they won’t receive those ballots in time to mail them back, according to data reported by local clerks to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Those people will be forced to choose between voting in person or skipping the election.

Dressed in full medical protective gear — a mask, gloves and a gown — Republican state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who said he’d been instructed to wear the equipment, volunteered at a polling place in Burlington. Vos had opposed efforts to make Wisconsin’s election a by-mail-only contest and successfully fought in court to force the election to take place without delay. He told reporters Tuesday that “you are incredibly safe to go out.”

He blamed Milwaukee city officials for failing to open more polling places as lines stretched for hours there.

“It made no sense to cancel the election and just push it off to a future date with no idea how it was going to work and no better plan than people have done right here today,” he said.

“We have no guarantee that it’s going to be any safer in June than it is right here today,” Vos said, noting that “there’s a chance this virus is going to come back some time in the fall.”

Vos also gave voters inaccurate information: He said the thousands of people who requested absentee ballots that hadn’t yet arrived in the mail could call their local clerks on Tuesday and ask for absentee ballots to be emailed to them. That is false, Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said Monday night.