Wisconsin voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday, to cast ballots amid a global pandemic after a stunning 24-hour period in which the state’s governor tried to cancel in-person voting because of the public health risk, only to be overruled by the state supreme court.
The US supreme court also weighed in, hours before the polls opened.
Even though the Democratic primary between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders is winding down, Wisconsin has exploded in controversy. It is both the most significant battle so far between Republicans and Democrats over the right to vote in 2020 and a chaotic scramble to protect both the vote and public health.
In late March, Democratic governor Tony Evers issued an executive order instructing people to stay at home. There is such a severe shortage of poll workers that Evers asked the national guard to step in.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission has declined to project turnout, but it is expected to be low. Democrats say Republicans are banking on low turnout to help Daniel Kelly, a conservative on the state supreme court, hold his seat.
On Monday, after weeks of rebuffing efforts to delay the election, Evers issued an executive order seeking to delay in-person voting until 9 June.
Republicans, who have resisted calls to mail a ballot to every voter and ease restrictions on mail-in voting, challenged the order in the state supreme court, where conservatives hold a majority. The court overruled Evers. Kelly recused himself.
The US supreme court weighed in, upholding a lower court order extending the deadline by which mail-in ballots could be received from 7 April to 13 April. But in a 5-4 decision, the high court accepted a request from Republicans to require ballots to be postmarked by election day.
That rule is likely to disenfranchise thousands of voters who have not yet received ballots even though they requested them by the official deadline, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the four liberal justices who dissented.
