'Your Health or the Right to Vote': A Battle in Wisconsin as Its Primary Nears

In Wisconsin, the upheaval from the pandemic has set up a clash between the Democratic governor and Democratic lawmakers on one side — who want to expand voting by mail, drop photo ID requirements for absentee requests, extend deadlines for voters to return ballots and give clerks more time to count them — and the Republican majorities in the Legislature on the other, who are largely intent on moving forward with voting.

Mr. Evers cannot send the ballots on his own; he asked the Legislature to convene and approve a measure to do so. But Scott Fitzgerald, the State Senate majority leader, decried the request as a “fantasy,” and Robin Vos, the speaker of the State Assembly, said Republicans in his chamber were “united as a caucus in rejecting the governor’s request” to mail the ballots.

“Governor Evers just proposed procuring, printing, verifying and mandating the mailing of millions of ballots within 10 days. Even he knows that’s not logistically feasible,” Mr. Fitzgerald said in a statement on Friday. “In pitching this idea, the governor is lying directly to Wisconsinites about this even being remotely possible. Acting like this is doable is a hoax.”

Indeed, it was not clear on Friday, even if the Legislature complied, whether ballots could be mailed to millions of Wisconsin voters before April 7. State officials said they were still preparing for in-person voting at polling places by placing special orders for hand sanitizer and calling for volunteer poll workers.

Asked during a news conference on Friday whether there would be enough time to mail ballots to every voter, Mr. Evers said, “It ain’t gonna be easy, but we’re gonna do it.”

Mr. Evers issued a “safer at home” order earlier in the week that shuttered nonessential businesses and prohibited nonessential travel in the state, further raising questions about how the state would hold in-person voting if its citizens were supposed to stay away from public places.

“We need to recognize the impossible choice that we’re forcing on people, which is your health or the right to vote,” said Mayor Eric Genrich of Green Bay, Wisconsin’s third-largest city, which had sued the state to demand that the election be postponed. Referring to recommendations made by public health officials, he added, “There is no way for us to abide by those guidelines and at the same time administer an in-person election.”

The state is not just holding a presidential primary election on April 7, but also numerous state and local races, including a closely watched State Supreme Court race.




https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/us/politics/wisconsin-primary-coronavirus.html