Wisconsin mayors say Tuesday primary will put 'hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk'

Wisconsin's presidential primary remains scheduled for Tuesday with in-person voting even amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, an idea a group of mayors is calling "irresponsible and contrary to public health."

Amid calls for Wisconsin to postpone its primary as other states have done in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Tony Evers (D), who previously issued a safer-at-home order, recently called a special session of the GOP-held legislature to consider canceling in-person voting and extending the deadline to mail in ballots. The legislature ultimately didn't do so. Wisconsin general elections are also set for Tuesday.

Now, a group of 10 Wisconsin mayors, including the mayor of Milwaukee, have written to the state's top health official, Department of Human Services Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, asking her to take action and close the buildings where voting is to take place, Politico reports.

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"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 letter, signed by 10 Wisconsin mayors representing 1.3 million people, reads. "...We believe it would be irresponsible and contrary to public health to conduct in-person voting throughout the state at the very time this disease is spreading rapidly."

Politico notes that in Ohio, the governor's top health official shuttered polling places when that state's primary was scheduled for March 17. In that case, Ohio subsequently extended absentee voting until April 28.

The Wisconsin mayors in their letter also urge the state's legislature to meet before Tuesday in order to "craft a procedure that protects public health and protects the right to vote," which they suggest would be "to mail every registered voter a ballot."

As the voting remains set to go ahead for now, NPR reports that "clerks are now dealing with a shortage of about 7,000 poll workers across the state."