Milwaukee sees 4 percent in-person turnout, 2 hour waits to cast votes in Tuesday's primary

(Image credit: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 9 April 2020

Tuesday's primary vote in Wisconsin went about as well as expected, considering it happened during a global pandemic.

Despite a last-ditch effort from Gov. Tony Evers (D), the state's presidential primary and state Supreme Court election still went on Tuesday amid a statewide stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It translated into hours-long waits to vote in socially distant lines and dismal in-person turnouts, but a huge rise in absentee ballot returns, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

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Wisconsin's board of elections did report more than a million absentee ballots have been returned as of Wednesday morning. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled absentee ballots had to be mailed by Tuesday despite Evers pushing for an extension. However, many people who'd requested absentee ballots more than two weeks ago hadn't received them as of Tuesday morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

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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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