Long lines form in Milwaukee as Wisconsin elections proceed under court order

[left-of-center2012]

Hundreds of voters stood in lines that stretched for blocks in Milwaukee early Tuesday morning to cast their ballots amid warnings about the spread of the coronavirus, a chaotic start to Wisconsin elections that went forward only after a last-minute legal battle.

Morning scenes at the polls across the city, which was able to open only five polling locations, down from 180 underscored the near-unprecedented challenge facing election administrators one day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers sought to suspend in-person voting in light of the covid-19 pandemic, an order that was quickly reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The decision was a victory for the state’s GOP-controlled legislature, which had declined to postpone the election and filed a legal challenge to Evers’s order, arguing it exceeded the governor’s constitutional authority.

Seething anger mixed with resolve at the end of the line of voters that stretched to about 400 people waiting outside Milwaukee’s Riverside University High School, which stretched for many blocks and snaked into nearby Riverside Park.

Rosie Redmon, 79, sat in her wheelchair at the front of the line. She arrived with her son and daughter-in-law at 5:45 a.m., knowing the polling location would be packed. “We decided to risk our lives to come vote,” said Ellie Bradish, 40. “I feel like I’m voting for my neighbors ...”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/long-lines-form-in-milwaukee-as-wisconsin-proceeds-with-elections-under-court-order/2020/04/07/93727b34-78c7-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html