Wisconsin Election: Hundreds Of Absentee Ballots Lack Signatures

MILWAUKEE, WI — Amid the coronavirus public health emergency, thousands of voters in Wisconsin are taking to the polls to vote in the state's presidential primary and statewide general election. Early reports coming in show voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots while also facing the challenge of maintaining at least six feet of distance between others.

Voters and poll workers did not know whether they would be participating in the election on Monday, after Gov. Tony Evers sought to postpone in-person voting until June via an executive order. The state has seen more than 2,440 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 77 coronavirus-related deaths. Schools were closed in mid-March, non-essential businesses have been shut down, and residents are restricted from non-essential travel in a "safer at home" order.

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Republican opponents fought back against Evers' order to delay in-person voting, filing a lawsuit with the State Supreme Court within hours. The conservative-leaning court ruled that Evers did not have the authority to postpone the election. Then, hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state's absentee ballot deadline extension was also unconstitutional, meaning that thousands of voters who had absentee ballots out — or who had yet to get them in the mail — have to turn them in or have them postmarked by Tuesday in order for them to count.

Results were not expected to be released election night, the Associated Press is reporting as of Tuesday morning. In the wake of a legal battle over whether to conduct the election as scheduled, a court ruling appeared to prevent results from being made public earlier than April 13.

Hundreds Of Absentee Ballots Won't Count

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee Election said a minimum of 750 absentee ballots in the City of Milwaukee do not have witness signatures and won't count in the election, he said in a JSOnline report. Voters are waiting more than two-and-a-half hours to cas their ballots at some Milwaukee polling locations. "We have moved forward with an election, but we have not moved forward with democracy in the state of Wisconsin," he said.

Afternoon: Social Distancing 'Nearly Impossible'

According to a JSOnline report, Jeff Pothof, chief quality and safety officer for UW Health in Madison said it's " nearly impossible to maintain social distancing throughout the process of going to the polls and voting. You can see some people quite close to each other, some wearing masks, some not," he said in the report.

Election Morning: Long Lines, Masks and Hand Sanitizer

In Madison, city workers erected Plexiglas barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots. Across the state, poll workers donned masks and gloves. Some wore surgical scrubs and protective gowns to the polling place. In many suburban Milwaukee communities, voters were either handed single-use pens or were asked to bring their own.

Kat Devlin, a magazine editor who works from her home in Milwaukee, applied for an absentee ballot during the third week in March but never received it. The state should have postponed the election, she said. "It's just dangerous to have so many people going to the polls," she said.

Earlier last week, Waukesha officials consolidated all of the city's polling places into one at the Schuetze Recreation Center on Baxter Street.

One report from early Tuesday morning from Matt Smith showed voters — some with masks and some without — in long lines outside the polling place doors waiting for them to open.

An hour after polls opened Tuesday, Milwaukee journalist Mike De Sisti recorded a video showing voters slowly advancing in a line that stretched more than a block long outside Milwaukee's Riverside High School polling place. De Sisti reported wait times as long as 90 minutes just to get inside, with many people standing in close quarters.

Related Reading

• Wisconsin Coronavirus Tracker
• 2020 Democratic National Convention Postponed
• National Guard To Be Called Out On Election Day Over Coronavirus
• Coronavirus Closures: Walmart, Woodman's, Target, Mayfair, More

• What's going on in Wisconsin? Find Out Here
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The Associated Press Contributed To This Report