Voters wait in long lines at few polling stations
MADISON, Wis. — Thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in long lines outside overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday, ignoring federal health recommendations so they could participate in a presidential primary election that tested the limits of electoral politics in the midst of a pandemic.
Thousands more stayed home, unwilling to risk their health during a statewide stayathome order, but complained that the absentee ballots they had requested were still missing.
Pregnant and infected with the coronavirus, 34yearold Hannah Gleeson was still waiting Tuesday for the absentee ballot that she requested last week.
“It seems really unfair and undemocratic and unconstitutional, obviously,” said Gleeson, who works at an assistedliving center in Milwaukee. “It seems really absurd. And I think it’s voter suppression at its finest.”
The chaos in Wisconsin, a premiere generalelection battleground, underscored the lengths to which the coronavirus outbreak has upended politics. As the first state to hold a presidential primary contest in three weeks, Wisconsin became a test case for dozens of states struggling to balance public health concerns with voting rights.
Joe Biden hopes the state will help deliver a knockout blow to Bernie Sanders in the nomination fight, but the winner of Tuesday’s contest may be less significant than Wisconsin’s decision to allow voting at all. Its ability to host an election during a growing pandemic could have significant implications for upcoming primaries and even the fall general election.
Results were not expected Tuesday night. A court ruling appeared to prevent results from being made public earlier than next Monday.
The state’s largest city opened just five of its 180 traditional polling places, forced to downsize after hundreds of poll workers stepped down because of health risks. The resulting logjam forced voters to wait together in lines spanning several blocks in some cases. Many did not have facial coverings.
The election complications had a racial component.
Milwaukee is home to the state’s largest concentration of black voters, a community that has been hit harder than others in the early stages of the pandemic. Reduced minority turnout would benefit Republicans in a series of state and local elections.
Democrats in and out of Wisconsin screamed for the contest to be postponed, yet Republicans — and the conservativemajority state Supreme Court — would not give in. The fight over whether to postpone the election, as more than a dozen states have done, was colored by a state Supreme Court election also being held Tuesday. A lower turnout was thought to benefit the conservative candidate.