Vote At Home CEO says Wisconsin election is ‘catastrophic and destructive’

Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute said Tuesday that the Wisconsin’s primary election will have serious consequences as the midwestern state’s constituents head to the polls and wait in crowded lines during the coronavirus pandemic. 

“What Wisconsin demonstrates for all of us today is what happens when there’s confusion in the process, what happens when political leadership doesn’t make decisions in a timely manner so then election officials can actually deliver on the services they provide in terms of the voting support for voters,” McReynolds told Hill.TV.

“It’s catastrophic and it’s destructive and it certainly diminishes confidence in the process,” she added.

Every state or territory that was scheduled to hold a primary in April has either moved completely to by-mail ballots or postponed until a later date, except for Wisconsin.

After court rulings by both the state Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court, Wisconsin’s primary is happening Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the country. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling requires that all mail-in ballots postmarked after the state’s primary election date, April 7, are not to be counted.

The courts’ decisions have prompted Tuesday’s election in the Badger State to return largely to the status quo, despite the fact that the state has reported 2,440 confirmed cases of the virus and 83 related deaths, according to The New York Times. 

McReynolds described the primary as a “nightmare” for the election officials that have been tasked with trying to adequately run in-person polling places.

Because of the pandemic, polls are operating at an extremely reduced capacity. In Milwaukee, the state’s largest metropolitan area, only five polling places are open. The city usually has 180.