Wisconsin governor's order to delay state elections, primaries expected to face immediate challenge by state's Supreme Court

Tony Evers.
(Image credit: Dylan Buell/Getty Images for VIBE)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D), after much delay, wound up issuing an executive order Monday to delay in-person voting for two months for the state's presidential primaries and other local elections scheduled for Tuesday. But the decision doesn't really bring much clarity to the situation.

Evers had held off on delaying the primaries and elections, even as other states postponed their own during the novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, because he agreed with Republicans that elections for local offices with terms set to begin soon needed to proceed. He changed his mind because of health safety concerns, but the new problem is that he doesn't actually have unchecked authority to issue such an order.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.