Wisconsin's primary is still set for Tuesday, and both sides of the aisle are refusing to push it back
Wisconsin Democrats are still supposed to get out and vote on Tuesday, but also stay inside to prevent COVID-19 spread.
It's up to the state's Republican-held state legislature to push back the Democratic presidential primary like many other states have, especially after U.S. District Judge William M. Conley refused to do so himself in a decision issued Thursday. But Democrats in the state are also openly upset with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for not pushing the legislature earlier and harder, Politico reports.
The fact that Wisconsin's primaries are still happening has been widely panned as potentially disenfranchising given that the state is under a stay-at-home order. "You can't have a stay-at-home order but then tell millions of people to go stand in line and congregate near one another across the state," the Democratic mayor of Racine told Politico. Low turnout in the Democratic primary could not only be a terrible look for a state that President Trump narrowly won in 2016, but also swing a vote over the state's Supreme Court seat in Republicans' favor.
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Still, Evers has largely just claimed he's powerless to change anything, Politico notes. He did propose last Friday that the legislature send mail-in ballots to everyone in the state, but by then, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the move would be "logistically impossible."
Conley had hinted he wouldn't delay the primary before he issued his final decision. But he also told The Washington Post it shouldn't be his decision to begin with, saying "I don't think it's the job of a federal district judge to act as a super health department for the state of Wisconsin."
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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