Wisconsin mayors ask state health officials to shut down in-person primary voting

Mayors representing cities across Wisconsin are asking state health officials to shut down in-person polling locations and call for a mail-in-only election for Tuesday’s primary due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“We implore you to implement all emergency measures necessary to control the spread of COVID-19, a communicable disease. Specifically, we need you to step up and stop the State of Wisconsin from putting hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk by requiring them to vote at the polls while this ugly pandemic spreads,” the mayors wrote in a letter to Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Andrea Palm, according to a copy of the letter published by Politico. 

The letter is signed by 10 Wisconsin mayors, including the mayors of Milwaukee and Madison. 

The push from the mayors comes as a battle over absentee voting in the state heads to the Supreme Court. 

The mayors wrote that they recognize the health department does not have the “authority to determine the modifications necessary to conclude this election.” 

“For that reason, we call on the Legislature to heed Governor [Tony] Evers’ request for a special session. Meet tomorrow before April 7, and work with him to craft a procedure that protects public health and protects the right to vote,” they wrote. 

Evers (D) called this week on the legislature to pass a bill allowing all ballots to be submitted by mail and to extend the deadline for ballot collection to late May, and on Friday he signed an executive order summoning lawmakers back to the capitol for a special session. 

The mayors suggested the most “logical way” to run the election with the safer-at-home order in place is to mail registered voters a ballot. 

We believe the most logical way to accomplish an election that maintains the safer-at-home order is to mail every registered voter a ballot.

Last month Ohio decided to shut its in-person polling places amid due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

2024 Election Coverage

• 2024 Election News
• 2024 Election Polling Data
• 2024 Presidential Election Forecast

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the Democratic National Committee on Sunday formally submitted a request calling on the Supreme Court to reject the GOP’s appeal, filed on Saturday in response to a lower court’s ruling to extend absentee voting in the state to April 13. 

Democrats in their filing argue that thousands of voters will be disenfranchised if the state does not go through with collecting absentee ballots after the deadline.