The Daily - Wisconsin's Pandemic Primary

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

Against the advice of public health officials and the wishes of its own governor, Wisconsin will hold its Democratic primary today — in the middle of a pandemic. So how did that happen? Guest: Astead W. Herndon, who covers national politics for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: The political and legal fight between Wisconsin’s conservative state legislature and its Democratic governor was only the first round of an expected national fight over voting rights during the coronavirus crisis.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Against the advice of public health officials and the wishes of its own governor, Wisconsin will hold its Democratic primary today in the middle of a pandemic. A stead Herndon on how that happened. It's Tuesday, April 7th.

March was always going to be one of the most consequential months of the presidential election. By the time we get to the middle of March, though... So here's what we're watching. Breaking news. Louisiana officially could become the first state to postpone its Democratic primary election over the coronavirus pandemic. It becomes clear that the coronavirus global health pandemic has really upended the race completely.

After Super Tuesday, states that are scheduled to vote start postponing and sometimes are canceling their scheduled primaries. Georgia becoming the second state to delay its presidential primary. Kentucky announced that they'd delay their contest as well. Ohio's governor pushed back its primary just hours before polls were set to open. Other states, Connecticut, Indiana, and Maryland. These are all states that said that the public health crisis was too great for them to hold in-person elections in March. But there's one state that refuses to budge, even as public health officials are urging them,

and states across the country have taken that drastic step. It's Wisconsin. And what explains that? What's happening in Wisconsin? Well, when most people look at these presidential primaries, particularly in a state like Wisconsin, they think that this is just about the two candidates at the top, Joe Biden versus Bernie Sanders, and who gets the delegates out of that. But the reason why Wisconsin was holding out and keeping its primary schedule was really to do with more state and local concerns. Initially, the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and state Republican leaders were on the same page. They both agreed that the April 7th election should go forward. And they said so for a couple reasons.

that we have seen in other parts of the country at the initial time in March when they were making this decision. But they agreed on the importance of the state and local races that would be decided down ballot on the same day of the presidential primary. I just want to make sure people understand the complexity of our spring general election. It's not a primary election. It's only a primary election for the presidential candidates. Races like sheriffs and mayors and court judges, there's a particularly important Supreme Court race that's happening in the state. And both sides agreed that filling these roles

was important for the continuance of state government. How long do we potentially leave offices not filled because we're into July or August and we haven't held a general election? And that's why they proceeded with the primary. You know, I want to give credit to Governor Evers. I agree with his decision to say that we are going to hold this election. So despite the risks of holding an in-person primary

in the middle of a pandemic, despite the fact that many states are postponing these primaries, the Republican and Democratic officials in Wisconsin say that this is necessary for the functioning of their government. Right. And that's the position they held for about a week. And what happens after a week? Well, kind of most clearly, the factors around the decision change. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. The pandemic becomes more acutely felt in the Midwest and particularly in Wisconsin. Here is the bottom line. Folks need to start taking this seriously. So today I'm asking for your help.

And the governor issues a stay-at-home order, like many other governors did across the country, and closes all non-essential businesses. It's not something I wanted to do. And it's not something I'd take lightly. And people across the state are starting to say, well, if we can't leave our houses, how are we supposed to vote? Right. And what's the answer? The governor and state Republicans keep holding this line that voting was something that was so essential, that the

primary was something that was so important that they would try to find some workarounds that included expanding access to absentee ballots and encouraging people to use that measure. It included counties taking precautionary measures, which include maybe drive-through voting or socially distanced lines. But besides all of these creative measures, there is an increasing fear, particularly among poll workers, that the election would be unsafe for them to staff. These are people who, 90% of them, are senior citizens. Poll workers. One of the most vulnerable population to this deadly virus. vulnerable population to this deadly virus. And they start dropping off, informing their local jurisdictions that they don't think that they want to participate in the scheduled election.

A survey from the election commission in the state showed that more than 100 jurisdictions cannot adequately staff their polling locations because they wouldn't have the right poll workers to do so. Wow. That becomes the first real point of pressure to say, how can this election go forward? So what do officials do in response to this severe shortage of poll workers? Well, they go back to trying to find creative workarounds. So the first thing that some of the local jurisdictions do is close and limit their polling locations. Some of the more drastic examples include Milwaukee, the biggest city in the state, going from 180 polling locations typically down to just five or seven.

And yet everyone still seems committed to holding this election. They were. Until the virus intensifies in the state and cases increase, as the deaths increase, that's when you see a real shift from the governor. Hi there, folks. Governor Evers here. And it's a big one. So today I'm asking the legislature to come together to take bipartisan action to ensure that every registered voter receives an absentee ballot to vote in the upcoming election. He proposes a dramatic expansion in the state's absentee ballot voting system, essentially making it a universal vote-by-mail system.

So I hope that the legislature will act swiftly to send absentee ballots to every single registered voter living in Wisconsin. The state would mail 3.3 million eligible voters a ballot, whether they requested it or not. And that represents a real change in how kind of the electoral process would work throughout the state. This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is an issue of democracy. I don't care who gets the credit. I just want to make sure that everyone has a chance to cast their ballot this April. Thanks for watching and let's get it done, folks. And that's when we really see the partisan pushback start.

What began as a Democratic governor and a Republican state legislature that were basically on the same page has now devolved into what is by all accounts a partisan bloodbath. From the moment that Evers proposes that every person would be mailed a ballot, whether they asked for it or not. Republicans go haywire. Right now, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is calling this idea a fantasy. Yeah, this has probably been my biggest disappointment so far in working with the administration since this all happened. They say that this is not only logistically impractical. It was completely disingenuous for the governor to tape a video and post it as if this was reality, to float the idea that they were going to find enough outer envelopes, balance themselves, inner envelopes with first class postage and mail it out to 3.3 million people in Wisconsin is completely made up. But also kind of morally and democratically wrong.

You know, that happens sometimes, I guess, if you're feeling pressure from one of your own special interests or from the party themselves. And Evers knows that state law does not allow him to kind of unilaterally make huge changes in how Wisconsin runs the election. Folks, I can't move this election or change the rules on my own. My hands are tied. He needs the help of the legislature. And so one of the measures he tries to do is call a special session of the legislature and encourage them to delay the election and implement changes that would allow every person to be able to vote without going in person. I urge your legislators to take this call for a special session seriously.

It doesn't go well. The legislature gavels in a session this past Saturday. The April 2020 special session of the Senate will come to order. Without objection, the April 2020 special session will stand adjourned until Monday, April 6th. And less than a minute later... The April 2020 special session is adjourned. Gavels out. Whoa. This is kind of an extraordinary move by the legislature

to really thumb their nose at the power of the executive and the governor. The biggest elected official in the state has called them into session and said, take up this issue. And they basically start the session and end it without doing what he asked. So the Republicans do not grant the governor his wish for a mail-in balloting system. Right. I said, why is it that Wisconsin has so quickly erupted into a really nasty partisan battle over something as seemingly basic as making sure people can vote safely in a primary election. I mean, that would seem to be in everyone's bipartisan interest to protect life, right?

I mean, Democrats and Republicans will be casting ballots? It would seem as if safe voting and public health would be an issue in which partisanship would be left to the side and that Democrats and Republicans can agree on the best way to move forward. But in Wisconsin, there is no issue in which that can be left aside. there is no issue in which that can be left aside. What we see is a state that has become so deeply rested by Republican control that even something like, say, voting turns into a mudfest. And for this governor, for the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, that's been clear since the day he was elected. We'll be right back.

I said, where does this political dysfunction that you're describing in Wisconsin, where does that start? Well, the state is one that is unique in its political history. Few places reflect the growing political chasm in the U.S., as does the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin was a united Republican government under Scott Walker. Republicans won everything in Wisconsin in 2010. From 2010 until 2018. They won the legislature. They won this Republican majority in Wisconsin. And this wasn't just a Republican government that passed kind of conventional conservative bills. This was seen as really a laboratory of conservative ideas.

Governor Scott Walker is the man at the center of a bitter fight that has cleaved Wisconsin like a block of its best cheddar cheese. And so we saw a government that targeted teachers unions, that seized power on key boards, and really kind of had a wish list of conservative ideas nationally playing out in the state. He proposed slashing spending, raising no taxes, and most controversial of all, sharply curtailing public employees' right to collective bargaining. Even as the state voted for Barack Obama twice, incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker has won his re-election bid. they kept winning. For the third time in four years, Republican Scott Walker has won a statewide election for governor. So by the time you get to 2018. Major shift happened overnight.

Wisconsin voters, you've elected a Democrat as governor. When Walker loses his reelection bid to Tony Evers. The race was almost too close to call. But overnight, Democrat Tony Evers narrowly beat out GOP incumbent Scott Walker, denying him a third term. Republicans in the state legislature have already learned a lesson from the years prior. That it's more important to wield power than it is to be seen as a political compromiser. So how does that play out when all of a sudden there is a Democratic governor in Evers who I assume wants to start making compromises with the Republican legislature? The Republicans make clear that that is not what they're interested in.

Republicans stung by their losses in the midterms are moving forward with last ditch efforts to hang on to power. It's happening in at least two swing states, Wisconsin and Michigan. The country is really watching this morning as lawmakers here in Wisconsin work through the night to amend and vote on a number of bills. So in a special session that happens before Evers takes office, Republicans do a kind of classic power grab. Wisconsin's Republican-controlled legislature passed a series of bills late Wednesday night that would limit the powers of incoming Democratic Governor Tony Evers. They pass a number of bills that limit the power of the incoming Democratic governor and take away things that were available to his Republican predecessor. Now, the bills would put lawmakers in charge of litigation,

which would effectively block incoming Democratic Governor Tony Evers and the Democratic Attorney General-elect from withdrawing the state from a lawsuit to overturn Obamacare. So Evers would not have the power to make key appointments. And another bill would require the governor to get permission from the legislature to ban guns. Evers would not have the power to regulate guns in the same way that it existed for his predecessor. They also limit early voting,

which is a kind of tool of access to the ballot box that has sometimes helped Democrats because more people in bigger areas can get to the polls. These were all really nakedly partisan, and Republicans didn't really even try to hide it. We don't want to usurp his power. That's never been our goal. Our goal is just to guarantee that we have an opportunity to sit at the table, negotiate, and do it fairly. It puts us on an equal playing field as the legislature,

and I think that's a positive step for the state of Wisconsin. So that is the political backdrop, you're saying, for this current battle over how to hold a primary in the middle of a pandemic. Yeah, it is that sense of affirmation, the sense of rightness that Republicans enter into Evers administration with. And it allows them to openly flout the typical means of political pressure that the governor tries to put on them around the election. election. The legislature, they came in, they gaveled in for about 10 seconds, gaveled out, and they moved on. They said that was not a serious proposal and said the time for proposals like that was several weeks ago when the crisis began. So what happens after that special session,

that minute-long special session about the election? Well, there's been a significant amount of legal legislation that has surrounded all of this political action. So much going on here at the state capitol today. Let's break down and give you a brief summary of what happened today, because it's been a wild day politically. There was a court ruling that basically affirmed that the Republicans probably have control

over when the election should be held, but the ruling expanded access to absentee voting. Republicans appealed that straight to the U.S. Supreme Court. And then on Monday... It started with Governor Evers issuing an executive order pushing back the spring election from tomorrow to June 9th. This morning, Governor Tony Evers issued an executive order

to postpone tomorrow's election due to COVID-19 concerns. The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe. The governor makes his most drastic step, unilaterally postponing Tuesday's election until June, claiming that he has the emergency powers to do so. This is a affront to the Republicans. Republican legislators mounted a legal challenge immediately. And they immediately initiate emergency legislation going straight to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, saying that the governor does

not have the right to do this. And just about an hour ago, the state Supreme Court issued its ruling saying that indeed, the election will happen tomorrow. And the court agreed with them, ruling just hours later that the governor did not have the power to postpone the Tuesday primary, meaning the election will go on in person today.

You know, I said I'm struck by the fact that earlier on you told us that Democrats and Republicans in the state, they had basically been on the same page about this primary until the virus gets worse and the governor advocates for a different kind of voting system through absentee ballots. And then it all breaks down and Republicans are attempting at every turn to block him now in court. And how do you explain that? I mean, how do Republicans in the state legislature explain that? Republican county chairs and folks in the state legislature say a couple Republican county chairs and folks in the state legislature say a couple things. The first is that their position hasn't changed.

They thought the governor didn't have the power then, and they don't think he has the power now to change how the election is run. The other point is that they see Wisconsin again as a microcosm of the conservative fight that could happen largely and what could be a new reality of how American elections are run in this pandemic era. And in that view, dramatically expanding the electorate in these ways are not something that Republicans are all that keen on because what they're worried about is an election in which people who may not have participated or may not have come out, all of a sudden have the opportunity to do so and to cast a ballot. And that kind of changes the center of power

within the state. What do you mean? If people participate in different numbers, in bigger numbers, if it changes the type of people who want to participate in a spring election that's not necessarily always seen the biggest turnout, that changes who can win. And who has benefited from those systems in the past and who might benefit if they were to change along the lines of what Governor Evers is asking for? It's hard to say exactly because we're talking about an unprecedented situation, but we do know that the people who are typically benefited from early voting, from early registration, from online registration, or vote by mail, are people who usually don't participate in the process, younger voters, minority voters,

people that lean Democratic. And just in the ways that Republicans limited early voting and that special session they had after Evers won, it's the same thought process, that when more people get involved, when people who typically sit out get involved, People who typically sit out get involved. That helps Democrats. Hmm. Do Democrats acknowledge that an absentee balloting system that is suddenly much more widespread than it has been in the past

would be advantageous to them in Wisconsin? They principally try to appeal to voters using small-D democratic ideals, the general basic American principle that everyone should be given the easiest access to vote. They tried to appeal to people through public health measures, noting how unsafe it is for people to gather at polls. But when you ask folks in democratic circles, they know that when the electorate expands, particularly in national and statewide elections, that's usually good news for Democrats. It's interesting.

This is not just a debate about how to vote in a pandemic, although clearly that's what's driving a lot of this. But in the background, from what you're saying, is this other question, which is whether the systems needed to vote during a pandemic may fundamentally change who votes, how many people vote, and which party wins. Exactly. This is not just about public health. This is about access to power and the kind of most basic fundamental principles of democracy. If the system that we have been traditionally used to can't hold, what replaces it? And we've seen real resistance to that in this state, and we may see that resistance all across the country.

Well, why would you say that? Because it's very tempting to see this story as an anomaly, right? In that the governor of Wisconsin waited a very long time to try to postpone the state's primary, perhaps too long. conservative activist body that is trying to use its power for political advantage. So all those factors would seem to make Wisconsin a bit of an outlier. Well, what may seem like an anomaly right now might actually just be a pacesetter. And this could be a preview as to what comes for state after state. If you are a place like Georgia or Louisiana or Ohio that has functionally delayed its election by three, four weeks, and if this virus persists to that time, there will still be questions about whether it is safe to hold in-person balloting then. And when those questions come and the remedies are proposed, whether it's online or vote by mail or the like, the same struggles of power will persist. These same struggles of power will persist, and we will see factions emerge that question whether the new systems are fair and who politically benefits from them.

Ested, thank you very much. Thank you. On Monday night, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin who had opposed extending the deadline for absentee ballots in today's election. In a 5-4 ruling, the court's conservative justices wrote that such an extension, quote, fundamentally alters the nature of the election, and said that all absentee ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday night. Polls in Wisconsin are scheduled to open at 7 a.m. this morning, but it's unclear how many poll workers will show up, how many polling stations will be open, and what kinds

of protections will be in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus during in-person voting. during in-person voting. Meanwhile, the virus continues to spread across Wisconsin. As of Monday, the state reported nearly 2,500 infections and 77 deaths. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. I also want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We're very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon,

a little while ago. On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who tested positive for COVID-19 10 days ago, was moved into the intensive care unit of a London hospital after his condition worsened. Americans are all praying for his recovery. He's been a really good friend. He's been really something very special, strong, resolute, doesn't quit, doesn't give up. In a statement, Johnson insisted he remained in charge of the British government, but said he had deputized his foreign minister to act in his place when necessary. Meanwhile, Iran, an epicenter of the virus in the Middle East, said it would lift a nationwide shutdown of businesses and allow the majority of its workforce to return to work later this week.

Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, said it was important for economic activity to resume, despite fears that it could lead to greater levels of infection. And in the U.S., the death toll surpassed 10,000 people. And congressional leaders began talks about a second economic relief package that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted could cost more than $1 trillion. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.