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| Milwaukee voters April 7 |
by the Editorial Board
On April 3, Democratic governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin asked his Republican legislature to approve a delay of that state’s April 7 election, to June 7, to avoid the unprecedented logistical and safety problems associated with holding an election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and a newly enacted state lock-down. For New Jersey readers (where the safety threat is the second most serious in the nation), the problem would be obvious: it is nearly impossible for poll workers and voters to abide by the six-feet social distancing required by medical and governmental guidance.
The problem was exacerbated because in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, the number of polling places were reduced to five from the usual 180 or so, because so many poll workers refused to volunteer in fear for their safety. Why the insistence on staging this election during such genuinely awful circumstances? Apparently, a hotly disputed partisan contest for a single seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in which the president of the United States deigned to weigh in (soon after attacking the integrity of mail in ballots altogether). The dispute was further fueled by pundits suggesting that Republicans believed their candidates would be advantaged by holding the election when largely Democratic voters in cities—where in-person voting would be more difficult under the circumstances—may be deterred by health concerns.
The governor then attempted to delay the election by executive action; the legislature successfully and quickly overruled that order by appeal to that same elected and politically divided state supreme court. In the midst of this political wrangling, a million voters, fearful of being forced to the polls, requested absentee ballots. The situation was so dire that by the Thursday before the scheduled election day, overwhelmed election boards had yet to mail more than 150,000 absentee ballots.
Even before this drama unfolded, Democratic Party organizations had sought emergency relief in U.S. District Court regarding various matters including registration and voting requirements, which the court granted. Over several weeks, additional actions, motions and orders were filed, all leading to an omnibus opinion and order on April 2, more than 50 pages long, granting the Democrats a partial win, allowing for absentee ballots to be counted through April 13 and delaying the reporting of election results until then. But the court declined to postpone the election. The Seventh Circuit in large part denied an emergency motion to stay the order the next day. Defendants immediately sought a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that it not allow absentee ballots to be counted beyond election day, arguing among other things, that partial results could be leaked.***
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