Invoking emergency management authorities laid out in state statute, Gov. Tony Evers today announced in a press release that he is suspending in-person voting for the April 7 spring election, moving in-person voting to June 9, 2020. The order also directs the Legislature to meet in special session on Tuesday to address the election date.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald would immediately appeal to the State Supreme Court and that “the clerks of this state should stand ready to proceed with the election.’
“Today, I signed an executive order suspending in-person voting for tomorrow’s election. Frankly, there’s no good answer to this problem—I wish it were easy. I have been asking everyone to do their part to help keep our families, our neighbors, and our communities safe, and I had hoped that the Legislature would do its part—just as the rest of us are—to help keep people healthy and safe,” Evers said in a statement. “But as municipalities are consolidating polling locations, and absent legislative or court action, I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing. The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and that’s why I signed this executive order today.”
Evers said weeks ago that postponing the election would do little good, instead encouraging everyone to vote absentee.
“Moving the date isn’t going to solve the problem,” Evers said in a conference call with reporters on March 20. “We could move it to June, and (the virus outbreak) might be worse in June.”
Since then, Evers and the legislature have faced increasing pressure from civil rights groups to postpone the election for the health and safety of both voters and poll workers.
Several mayors, including Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, signed a letter over the weekend pushing Evers to move the election date.
The City of Milwaukee faces such a shortage of poll workers that it intended to conduct the election with just five polling places tomorrow, rather than the usual 180.
A federal judge ruled last week that he did not have the authority to allow the election to be rescheduled, but did allow absentee ballots to be counted until April 13. The Republican National Committee has challenged that order in the United States Supreme Court.
Evers called the legislature into special session to take up the matter of the election over the weekend, but the Republican leadership opened and closed the session without taking action.
All ballots already cast in the 2020 Spring election will remain valid and will be tallied in conjunction with the new in-person voting date, according to the press release.
In the text of the order, Evers cited a lack of poll workers and consolidated polling places that would make voting especially dangerous. The order also cites a rapid increase in coronavirus infection in Michigan following that state’s March 10 election, which proceeded as normal.
Executive Order #74 is available here.
