Wisconsin officials are moving full-speed-ahead with holding the April 7 presidential primary

[RandySF]

Wisconsin officials are moving forward with holding the planned April 7 presidential primary election as reported cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, continue to mount in the state.

As of Monday morning, the Wisconsin Department of Health reported 1,157 confirmed cases and 19 deaths from COVID-19, a massive increase over the 32 cases that were reported in the state two weeks ago on March 15.

Nine other states set to hold primary elections in the rest of March and April, including Georgia, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the six mid-Atlantic states which planned to vote on the April 28 "Acela primary" day have now moved to postpone their elections until May or June.

But Wisconsin, which allocates 84 pledged delegates in the Democratic presidential primary and is holding numerous other down-ballot elections, is proceeding with its April 7 election, even as Gov. Tony Evers issued a "Safer at Home" order banning gatherings of more than 10 people through April 24.



https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-wisconsin-april-7-primary-as-others-postpone-2020-3

[UncleNoel]

1. I would like to get the primary voting over with, but not at the risk of lives and health

Hope they go full throtle for mail in voting.

[FloridaBlues]

2. Good vote by mail

[Sloumeau]

3. The problem is, the risk to voters gets worse with each passing week, and the number of voters

in a hospital, unable to vote, gets greater each week. We here in Arizona voted on March 17. My 88 year old dad and my 84 year old mom worked the polls and were just fine. All of the employees had gloves on, and they wiped the area between each voter who signed the register, and they wiped the pen every time. I found out that other Arizona polling places had hand sanitizer everywhere. It is doable.

[George II]

4. Biden is currently ahead by 12%, hopefully it will be bigger by April 7. Will a convincing win....

....by Biden convince Sanders to face reality and concede? Probably not. But each of these that he loses convincingly causes some of his prospective voters to bail for Biden.

[Promisep]

5. It should be all-mail or nothing

It's too risky to have people out there voting in person.
Vote should take place, but by mail. If it's not ready then postpone it.

[Takket]

6. Holding any primaries right now is irresponsible

All states should push them back to June and mail out ballots.

[Talitha]

7. My small rural Township has posted this regarding the upcoming April 7 vote:

"Dear Township Residents,

Please be assured that the voting staff will be taking all precautions necessary for the safety of all individuals that will be coming to vote on 4-7-20.

We will be asking voters to stay in their car until we acknowledge you to come into the polling area. This will assure that only 2 individuals will be in the Town Hall at a time. It will also allow us time to disinfect each voting area after every voter.

For those that still are not comfortable coming into the Town Hall, we will be offering curbside voting. However, please be prepared to have a longer wait time for curbside voting.

​Thank you for your cooperation."

We use paper ballots that are fed into the machine - no screen touching involved. The voting staff are all close friends and neighbors, and things will proceed just fine.

Ours is a sparsely populated Township located in a county that hasn't had any positive test results. I can't imagine what Primary Day will be like in the southern part of WI, though. Hope there were a lot of early voters.

[BGBD]

8. They have had plenty of time

to get ready. They should have been able to have almost everyone either vote early when there are no crowds, vote by mail, and mitigate as much as possible on election day.

[MineralMan]

9. According to a report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press,

the number of absentee ballots already turned in is at a record high. That's a good sign. If people do not turn out in large numbers to vote at their polling place, the primary will happen anyhow, based on absentee voting.

Wisconsin does not require any reason for voting absentee by mail, so more and more people are doing so.

Every election is determined by whatever percentage of people actually vote. In some cases, where COVID-19 cuts down on the number of people who vote in person, elections will be decided, still, based on the votes of people who voted.

[Hortensis]

10. THIS! Record highs in absentee voting, and WI voting rights laws

are quite liberal and enabling, as indicated at the link.

I'd vote if I had to wear a vacuum cleaner bag on my head and garbage bags over the rest just to feel safe. But it's probable that most polling places won't have significant or any lines in the middle of the day, and anyone can call the polling place ahead of going to check. But as you say, those who vote always decide anyway.

https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/VoterDeadlines