Joe Biden wins the Wisconsin primary that was clouded by coronavirus

The state held in-person voting last Tuesday after the Republican-controlled Legislature and state Supreme Court blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ effort to postpone the primary or send every voter an absentee ballot.

But a federal judge had postponed the deadline for absentee ballots to be returned from April 7 until six days later — 4 p.m. Central Time on Monday — and said the state couldn’t begin counting until that deadline had passed. The US Supreme Court later said ballots had to be postmarked by election day but kept in place the extended window for them to arrive in the mail at local clerks’ offices.

Still, as of the morning of the election, more than 11,000 of the nearly 1.3 million people who had requested absentee ballots had not even been mailed those ballots — leaving them with no choices but to vote in person or skip the election.

At stake in Wisconsin is a state Supreme Court seat. A Republican justice, Daniel Kelly, is up for reelection — a reality that appeared to motivate the GOP’s insistence on going forward with an election amid a pandemic that left Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and one that is heavily Democratic, with just five open polling places rather than its planned 180.

It was also the last Democratic presidential primary to have taken place before the race effectively ended. Votes were cast the day before Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont dropped out, making former Vice President Joe Biden the presumptive nominee. Sanders endorsed Biden on Monday.
On Monday, a group of 14 Milwaukee residents filed a federal lawsuit asking for a partial revote of the election, or at least mail-in procedures for anyone who did not vote, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

National and state Democrats who had backed previous efforts to delay the election or expand absentee voting said Monday that they are considering further legal action.

Ben Wikler, the Wisconsin Democratic chairman, said the party will “find every possible path for protecting voters.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called Wisconsin Republicans’ insistence on going forward with the election “voter suppression on steroids, because it was putting people’s lives in danger.”

He said he believed there were thousands of people in Wisconsin who had requested absentee ballots before the state’s deadline but did not receive them in time to vote.

“It’s impossible to submit an absentee ballot by election day when you haven’t even received the damn ballot by election day,” Perez said.

source: cnn.com