52 who worked or voted in election have COVID-19
MADISON, WIS. » More than 50 people who voted in person or worked the polls during Wisconsin’s presidential primary this month have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the latest count by state health officials tracking the impact of holding the election in the middle of a pandemic.
It remains unclear how many — if any — of those people contracted the virus at the polls and health officials are still collecting testing and tracing information. But officials say they don’t expect the number of known cases potentially tied to the election to grow substantially.
The “vast majority” of cases tied to the election have “already likely come to the surface,” said Andrea Palm, the state Department of Health Services secretary on Wednesday.
The numbers come as states across the country are struggling with how to hold fair and safe elections during the coronavirus outbreak. Some states, including Ohio on Tuesday, moved to virtually all-mail elections, closing nearly all polling places. Others have just urged voters to cast absentee ballots, while keeping in-person voting an option.
Wisconsin, whose April 7 primary became a symbol of the chaos the virus could wreak on democracy, plans to hold another round of in-person voting on May 12, this time for a special election to fill a vacant congressional district seat. Nebraska will also have a statewide primary on the same day.
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, concerned about a spike in virus cases, tried to change the April 7 election so that it would be conducted entirely by mail, but he was blocked by the Republican-led Legislature and conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Now, both parties are watching the infection count closely.
Republicans say the relatively low number of potential cases so far proves that warnings that the election would result in a spike in cases were overblown.