MADISON, Wis. (CN) – Wisconsin’s Democratic governor on Monday suspended in-person voting for the state’s pivotal primary election set for Tuesday, after weeks of chaos and confusion in which election officials were scrambling to ensure safe access to the polls in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governor Tony Evers’ executive order calls off all in-person voting for Wisconsin’s April 7 primary election and reschedules the primary for June 9.
The executive order also calls the Wisconsin Legislature into a special session to commence at 2 p.m. Tuesday to consider the scheduling of the new in-person voting date.
Evers had already called the legislature into special session with a separate executive order on Thursday to work on cancelling in-person voting on its own terms. That special session was supposed to take place on Saturday, but both chambers of the GOP-controlled legislature convened and adjourned the special session within seconds without any discussion, a move they repeated Monday morning.
Citing the unprecedented challenges municipalities have had organizing a safe, secure primary in light of Covid-19’s spread, Evers said that “absent legislative or court action, I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing.”
“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,” the governor said. “The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and that’s why I signed this executive order today.”
Evers clarified that all ballots already cast in the April 7 primary will remain valid and will be tallied in conjunction with the new in-person voting date.
Within minutes of Evers’ order, Republicans in control of the Wisconsin Legislature, who have steadfastly resisted cancelling in-person voting, promptly declared their intention to challenge Evers’ executive order Monday.
In a joint statement, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R- Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R- Juneau, stated “we are immediately challenging this executive order in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
“The clerks of this state should stand ready to proceed,” the Republicans said. “The governor’s executive order is clearly an unconstitutional overreach.”
Making good on its promise, the Republican-majority legislature filed an emergency petition with the state high court Monday afternoon, claiming Evers exceeded his constitutional and statutory authority by unilaterally changing the election date at the 11th hour in defiance of Wisconsin statutes and well-established separations of powers. The legislature’s petition and injunction motion ask the court to enjoin Evers’ order and declare it unlawful.
The legislators pointed out that Evers himself repeatedly stated he cannot move the election unilaterally, and even though a federal judge stated the same, that is exactly what the governor has done.
It was only in the last week or so that Evers had broken with the legislature on cancelling in-person voting for Tuesday’s primary. Until then, a loose consensus existed between the two entities which routinely snipe at each other over partisan policy, cultivating a working relationship that is at best icy and at worst outright acrimonious.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which tanked global markets and upended civic life around the world, has cast the closely watched Wisconsin primary election into a state of doubt and heaved upon state officials, election personnel and citizens an unprecedented dilemma.
Evers’ initial responses to the pandemic were to declare a public health emergency on March 12, followed by a March 24 safer-at-home order shuttering nonessential businesses and requiring residents to stay in their homes and limit interactions with others as much as possible. Last week, the governor mobilized the Wisconsin Army National Guard to assist poll workers and help with serious shortages of personnel and supplies reported by more than 100 state jurisdictions.