Reuters: Chaotic Wisconsin election signals virus-related voting battles ahead

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Shavonda Sisson said she requested a mail ballot to vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election in Wisconsin well ahead of the election.

When it failed to arrive, the Milwaukee resident decided not to risk voting in person. Sisson, a 39-year-old African American, feared her asthma would make her vulnerable to the deadly coronavirus now sweeping the country. And she expressed anger that other voters, especially in the hard-hit black community, had to make the same tough choice.

“Having to make that decision between their life and their vote, it’s heartbreaking,” Sisson said.

Sisson is among potentially thousands of Wisconsin’s nearly 3.4 million registered voters who could not vote by mail or in person in Tuesday’s elections that went forward despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from state election officials, voting rights advocates who heard from people who never received a ballot, and Reuters interviews with more than a dozen Wisconsin residents who were unable to vote.

Conservative-leaning courts overturned a decree by Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers to postpone the election and extend absentee voting. Evers issued a statewide stay-at-home order on March 25 to combat the virus, which has killed more than 14,000 people nationwide, at least 95 of them in Wisconsin.

The drama in Wisconsin foreshadows legal battles and political showdowns looming in upcoming primaries across the country, and heading into the all-important November presidential election, as the worst public health crisis in a century upends voting, Democratic officials, non-partisan voter advocates and election watchdogs say. …

If state legislatures do not expand mail-in voting soon, legal challenges like the ones that resulted in Wisconsin’s chaotic primary will be waged right up until the presidential election, said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

“What you saw in Wisconsin would be happening in November,” Albert said.