Wisconsin Supreme Court Blocks Governor’s Order to Postpone Primary

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is ordering the state’s primary election and down ballot elections to proceed as originally scheduled.

The court ruled in a 4-2 vote on Monday afternoon that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) cannot postpone the primary with an executive order.

One day before residents of Wisconsin were set to go to the polls for that state’s presidential primary, Evers signed an executive order postponing in-person voting until June 9.

In recent days, Wisconsin officials had been under pressure to postpone the state’s primary, as other states have done. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) also called on the state to delay its primary.

In a statement on Monday, Evers announced that he decided to delay voting, “Today, I signed an executive order suspending in-person voting for tomorrow’s election.”

He continued, “Frankly, there’s no good answer to this problem—I wish it were easy I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing. The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and that’s why I signed this executive order today.”

Wisconsin Republican officials filed a lawsuit with the court on Monday arguing, “The governor does not have constitutional or statutory authority to modify, suspend or otherwise alter the statutes. Nor does the governor have the constitutional or statutory authority to set the time, place and manner of elections.”