Despite the corona epidemic in the u.S., voters in the state of wisconsin cast ballots tuesday to determine who should run for democrat against president donald trump.
However, the two candidates, moderate ex-vice president joe biden and left-wing senator bernie sanders, had declined to go through with the election because of the health risk. Governor tony evers had ordered a last-minute postponement of the vote on monday, but a court reversed his order.
Evers said tuesday he remained "deeply concerned" about the impact the election could have on people’s health. At the same time, he was "overwhelmed by the courage, resilience and heroism of those who defend our democracy and show up to vote, work at the polling stations and report on the election," the governor said. On the eve of the election, he had warned that the conduct posed an "extreme risk" to the public.
Local media reported that many polling stations remained closed due to the lack of poll workers. In the capital city of milwaukee, only five out of 180 were open, the milwaukee journal sentinel reported. Where voting was possible, long lines of people wearing protective masks lined up, sometimes at long intervals. Waiting times were two and a half hours in some cases, according to the milwaukee journal sentinel. Many citizens in wisconsin had already voted in advance by brieahl. Results cannot be expected before next week, according to local media reports.
Republican representatives in wisconsin took legal action against the governor’s order to postpone the election for two months, accusing him of an "unconstitutional manover". It exceeds the governor’s authority to "cancel" an election, they argued. U.S. Media also reported that the supreme court in washington – the highest u.S. Court – on monday evening ruled against extending the deadline for the brieahl by six days.
U.S. Hit hard by corona pandemic. The absolute number of infection traps there is higher than in any other country. Exit restrictions apply to most parts of the country. The election year schedule has been completely disrupted by the crisis. Many states had postponed their originally scheduled march and april votes to a later date because of the epidemic.
Biden is seen as the clear favorite in the polls so far. There are now growing calls for sanders to drop out of the race in favor of biden. If he does not do so soon, the democrats will not have clarity on their candidate until july at the earliest, due to the postponement of numerous primaries. He would then have little time left for the election campaign against incumbent donald trump, who wants to be re-elected in november. He has already been chosen as the republican presidential candidate.