Wisconsin Governor Postpones In-Person Voting for Presidential Primary

One day before residents of Wisconsin were set to go to the polls for that state’s presidential primary, Gov. Tony Evers (D) 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.”

Evers said that he had hoped the state legislature would have passed legislation allowing an all mail-in ballot election with an extended time for the ballots to be received and counted. However, the legislature rejected that legislation. 

The decision mirrors a similar decision by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R ) to postpone his state’s primary date.

Both Evers and DeWine had previously