Wisconsin's Pandemic Election Is a Red Alert for Democracy in America This cannot become the new no

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Wisconsin’s Pandemic Election Is a Red Alert for Democracy in America
This cannot become the new normal.


By John Nichols
Yesterday 5:45 am



Madison, Wisconsin—They were sabotaged by politicians. They were subverted by judicial activists on the courts.

They were forced to choose between sheltering at home and protecting themselves from the coronavirus pandemic or exercising their right to vote.

Thousands of Wisconsinites decided Tuesday to take the risk and cast their ballots in an election that should have been postponed. Hours after an effort by Democratic Governor Tony Evers to extend absentee voting so that no one would have to cast in-person ballots on Tuesday was challenged by Republican leaders in the legislature and then blocked by political cronies of those Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and by the US Supreme Court, voters started showing up at the limited number of polling places that were opened in Milwaukee.


They spaced themselves six feet apart, forming lines that stretched out of those polling places and snaked down streets and around corners, for block after block. They waited for hours. Armed only with handmade masks and their faith in democracy, they persisted. When it began to rain, when hail pelted southeastern Wisconsin, they persisted. Some carried signs, like the one Jennifer Taff held as she waited for two hours to cast a ballot at Milwaukee’s Washington High School: this is ridiculous. “I’m disgusted. I requested an absentee ballot almost three weeks ago and never got it,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I have a father dying from lung disease and I have to risk my life and his just to exercise my right to vote.”



Most were furious. Gretchen Fennema, a 46-year-old from Milwaukeean, applied for an absentee ballot for herself, as did her 70-year-old father, who suffers from bronchitis. The ballots never came. “So we decided Monday night that we were going to have to go,” said the laid-off worker. “There was no other option. We were not going to miss voting. I cannot remember when I ever missed an election.” Fennema and her dad headed to Riverside High School in Milwaukee, waited in a line of cars, and finally cast a curbside ballot. As they drove away, Gretchen attached an “I Voted” sticker on the bandana that served as her mask and posted a selfie with a message for the legislators and the courts: “Fuck you, Wisconsin GOP.”


Yet, while Fennema voted with a vengeance, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites could not, and initial reports Tuesday night suggested that turnout could be significantly down from comparable spring elections.... ..............................................

[CaptYossarian]

1. The results should be interesting.

Blue Milwaukee and the deep red Fox Valley are missing absentee ballots.

It might equal out in the long run.