Impact2020: Wisconsin is voting after all
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Tuesday, April 7. The on-again, off-again Wisconsin elections are underway, governors continue to face pressure over their coronavirus responses, and a new Democratic group puts their battleground state plans on hold.
On the Ground
An election unlike any other
After a wild day of back and forth between the Democratic governor, GOP legislative leaders and the courts, Wisconsin voters wound up heading to the polls today for the state’s spring elections despite the statewide stay-at-home order that’s in place due to the coronavirus.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck and Patrick Marley walk us through how Wisconsin became the only state to hold in-person voting for the presidential primary this month.
After Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order Monday to ban in-person voting and move the election to June 9, “the state’s highest court reinstated the election within hours, capping off nearly six hours of confusion as election officials told clerks to continue preparing for an election because they did not know whether the polls would open Tuesday.”
Then a little over an hour later, “the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a second blow to the … governor by tightening limits on which absentee ballots can be counted. Under that 5-4 order, voters will have to mail back their absentee ballots by Tuesday, go to the polls that day or give up their opportunity to vote.”
Credit: Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File
Election clerks reported losing workers over fears of the coronavirus, which made sending out a record number of 1.3 million absentee ballots difficult. According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, 43% of voters who requested absentee ballots had yet to return them as of Monday, while another 11,000 ballots had yet to be mailed.
There have already been reports of voters waiting in long lines Tuesday. In Milwaukee, for instance, there are just five polling places open, rather than the usual 180, the Journal Sentinel’s Alison Dirr reports.
And after all this, we’ll still have to wait until next week to find out who won the presidential primary, state Supreme Court race and other local elections. Mitchell Schmidt and Riley Vetterkind note in the Wisconsin State Journal that results won’t be reported until April 13.
Another governor case study
Yesterday, we highlighted how GOP Govs. Mike Parson of Missouri and Henry McMaster of South Carolina are facing criticism for not going far enough in their responses to the coronavirus. Since then, the pressure has only increased.
The Kansas City Star’s Jason Hancock reports that public health experts are questioning why businesses are not required to close their doors under Parson’s stay-at-home order.
“While it enacts capacity limits on essential businesses, such as grocery stores, all other businesses deemed ‘non-essential’ by the federal government can stay open as long as they adhere to Parson’s previous executive order banning gatherings of 10 or more people,” Hancock writes. “Local governments are left to determine whether they wish to enact more stringent regulations, just as they were before the order was issued.”
McMaster is also defending himself against criticism that his latest order isn’t restrictive enough. Days after telling South Carolinians to use “common sense” and stay home if they can to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, he issued a “home or work” order to tell people to stay at home if they are not at work or tending to essential needs, Joseph Bustos and Maayan Schechter for The State report.
The order stops short of preventing people from visiting family or shopping for essential items or services. It also doesn’t prevent people from going to church for Easter services on Sunday.
Church and state
Other governors are also trying to figure out how to handle the upcoming religious holiday in the midst of the pandemic. Kansas has seen three coronavirus clusters tied to church gatherings, reports Jonathan Shorman for the Wichita Eagle.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s statewide stay-at-home order had exempted religious gatherings, describing them as essential. County limits on mass gatherings may also limit those congregating for Easter, but how many churches will hold in-person gatherings is unclear, Shorman notes. “Across the state, numerous congregations have either cancelled services or moved gatherings online, with clergy holding services via livestream.”
In Kentucky, some church-goers are attending drive-in services. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged them to stay inside their cars and remain six feet apart.
Trail Mix
Swing state watch
A new labor-backed coalition called Organizing Together 2020 planned to launch this week by hiring staff and knocking on doors in battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. COVID-19 has forced them to move their operation online instead, Julia Terruso reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appearance on Joe Biden’s new podcast has led to further speculation about her VP prospects, Kathleen Gray and Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press note.
Civil rights leader and Georgia Rep. John Lewis is throwing his support behind Biden, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein writes.
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Election disruption
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Tate is considering the option of holding November’s general election entirely by mail, Erin Murphy writes for the Sioux City Journal.
All 56 Montana counties are planning to use only mail ballots for the June 2 primary, reports KTVH’s Mike Dennison.
Battle for Congress
Georgia Sen. David Perdue’s “financial portfolio saw heavy trading during the month of March, a period during which Congress passed three different spending bills to address the spread of COVID-19 and the markets took a turn for the worse,” Tia Mitchell reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is running a new TV ad that portrays him as an ally of Donald Trump even though the president recently called him “a disaster for America,” Phillip M. Bailey notes for the Louisville Courier Journal.
Coronavirus hasn’t slowed down political fundraising in Texas, Gromer Jeffers Jr. reports for the Dallas Morning News.
Number of the Day
63%
That’s how many registered voters nationwide said they would be uncomfortable going to a polling place to vote amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
For Planning Purposes
April 10
Alaska primary (done by mail)
April 13
Wisconsin election results reported
April 17
Wyoming primary (done by mail)
April 28
Ohio primary (done by mail)
How some Wisconsin voters are feeling today
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This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 1:08 PM.