Republicans in Wisconsin are all for starting early voting as soon as possible, but say they cannot support expanding absentee voting.
Wisconsin Republican Party Executive Director Mark Jefferson yesterday said it makes no sense to change the rules for absentee voting, and toss election safeguards out the window because of the coronavirus. Democrats in Wisconsin are suing to force election managers to expand absentee voting.
Jefferson says early voting is one thing, but says suspending rules that ensure fair elections is simply not an acceptable solution.
But on the local scenes, here is what that looks like. A lot of people are taking the advice from Wisconsin’s election managers to vote absentee next month. Maybe too many.
Local clerks across the state say they are running out of absentee ballots envelopes, and may not be able to ship ballots as quickly as necessary. Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell says he expects to mail-out 10-thousand absentee ballots on Monday. He needed to get six-thousand envelopes yesterday just to keep-up.
The Wisconsin Election Commission and the governor are encouraging people to vote absentee in order to avoid the polls because of the coronavirus.
