Gov Evers Admin Refuses Stay-at-Home Order to Halt Elections
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Long and dangerous lines of people at
Marshall High School in Milwaukee.
Photo: Kristen Clarke |
Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin is conducting its presidential primary and other elections today to
outrage across the state in the middle of a deadly public health crisis, (Schmidt, Vetterkind,
Wisconsin State Journal).
Public health professionals,
local officials and the public are in a word, incensed.
"Health officials have said in-person voting presents a large risk to public health and creates a situation where the virus will spread."
Across Wisconsin, more than 2,400 cases of coronavirus have been reported as of Monday, with 1,300 in Milwaukee County alone," writes Molly Beck in the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Wisconsin Republicans have maneuvered in the Republican-controlled, state and federal courts and the legislature to move the elections forward, no matter the costs.
Gerrymandering has resulted in a Republican Party so malicious towards the public, the Party is unrecognizable from its predecessors 20 years ago.
In the
2016 Wisconsin presidential primary, 2,976,150 voters cast their ballots.
Fearing for their lives today, many voters will stay home, and will depress turnout numbers far-below 2016.
Absentee ballots have been requested in record numbers, but
1,282,762 absentee applications will see likely 10,000s of ballots never counted, due to staff shortages and poor voter education during the crisis.
The state that
pioneered public health systems and zoonotic (virus creation and animal-to human) research 60 years now sees academic and medical professionals' work dismissed.
Protestors driving in cars gathered at the City-County building driving around the block early this morning as a rebuke to legislative Republicans and Gov. Tony Evers (D).
Evers has contorted himself in his evolving positions on halting the elections the last week.
First, Evers claimed there is nothing he can do; then he issued an 11th-hour executive order banning elections, and finally refused a stay-at-home order to halt perhaps the most reckless gamble in this state's history.
In late April, as deaths and infections continue across the state, Wisconsin is likely to pay for Republican malice and the criminal weakness of its Democratic governor.
Republican judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are credibly refred to as killers.
This is Wisconsin today.
What Republicans and Gov Evers have accomplished today is unforgivable.
From Alex Larson and Amy Thomas in Milwaukee, (
Facebook)
An update from the front lines in Milwaukee from my friend Alex Larson:
These shots below and right were just shared to a neighborhood group I am in. This is my polling place today at Riverside High School. Polls open at 7 and there’s already huge lines. So now I’m a disenfranchised voter, because no way am I going out there with this much potential exposure, IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
Not only that, but as someone with cerebral palsy, standing on my feet for that long
just isn’t feasible. This wouldn’t have occurred if the election had been delayed and we could have the 180 polling places in Milwaukee like we normally do. Now we just have five!
My other option is to drop off my absentee ballot at city hall. The ride there, the ride back, and getting a witness means I’m exposed to 3 people, at the very least. Again, this is IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
Watch for the surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks. It’s going to occur. Any flattening of the curve, which Wisconsin was doing a great job of, is going to go out the window. The inaction of our Governor and the complete disregard for health and safety by the Republican Party are responsible for this, and any deaths that come as a result. This is fucking outrageous.
