Daily Times

Voters in Wisconsin are turning out to polling stations across the state Tuesday despite being in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

Images from the state published by various news outlets show voters in packed lines waiting to cast ballots, many donning masks or other informal face coverings, but several appearing to fail to adhere to health guidance to remain six feet from each other. Few were seen wearing gloves.

Several workers sat behind protective screens as they distributed ballots, or handed ballots to voters as they remained in their car at one drive-by polling station.

President Donald Trump urged state residents to vote “NOW,” even as he continues to ask U.S. residents to adhere to his strict social distancing guidelines.

Wisconsin is the only state holding in-person voting in April. All of the other states with primaries for the month have moved to delay or hold alternative voting.

Governor Tony Evers moved Monday to postpone the elections, issuing an executive order to delay the vote until June 9 unless he and the state legislature could agree on another date for in-person voting to begin.

But his action was overturned by the state’s top court that ruled Evers lacks the authority to do so, and mandated the state must go ahead with its election in the face of an outbreak that has already claimed 11,830 lives in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Wisconsin election results will not be released until April 13, the deadline for absentee ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be received.

Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, said Tuesday’s crowded polling sites were particularly risky for African-American voters, who are already seeing a higher incidence of coronavirus infections and fatality rates in Milwaukee, according to public health data.

Some cities resorted to “drive-through” voting. In Beloit, poll workers brought ballots to drivers’ windows to be completed.