Republicans, Democrats Trade Attacks Over Wisconsin Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Just hours before the results of last week’s election in Wisconsin are set to be released Monday, Democrats and Republicans attacked each other over how the vote was conducted.

In a video conference call Monday morning, the heads of the state and national Democratic Party argued that Republicans “tried to steal” a state Supreme Court seat. The head of the Wisconsin GOP, meanwhile, said Democrats were the ones rigging the rules.

Wisconsin went ahead with the previously scheduled April 7 election amid the coronavirus pandemic, despite a stay at home order from Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who had asked for a postponement. The election went forward after interventions by the state and U.S. Supreme courts and even though county elections directors criticized the decision.

Democrats argued that state Republican leaders, the Republican National Committee and conservative justices pushed to hold in-person voting because they believed it would lead to fewer Democrats showing up, especially in Milwaukee, where the number of polling places drop from 188 to just five because poll workers stayed home.

“It was voter suppression on steroids,” said DNC Chair Tom Perez.

Still, Perez argued that Wisconsin was an outlier, highlighting efforts by Republican governors in states like Georgia and Ohio to support mail-in voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic. So far, Wisconsin is the only state to hold an in-person election in April. Wisconsin has 3,341 coronavirus cases and 144 fatalities.

But Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said Evers had already tried to game the election last year by scheduling a separate election for an open congressional seat in a heavily Republican part of the state on a different day than the primary.

“They didn’t want conservative Republican voters showing up at the polls on April 7,” he said. “That’s voter suppression by any yardstick.”

Results of the Wisconsin election are expected later Monday, but Democrats said they are keeping their legal options open, noting that thousands of voters who requested absentee ballots before the state’s deadline did not receive them in time to vote.

“It’s impossible to submit an absentee ballot by Election Day when you haven’t even received the damn ballot by Election Day,” Perez said.

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