"Madison mayor says absentee ballots extension helps, but election should still be postponed amid COVID-19 pandemic."

The Wisconsin State Journal reports, quoting Madison mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.

I agree with our mayor. The planned election is not fair. It's not fair to old people like me who are used to voting in person and can't bring ourselves to go through an on-line procedure that required us to photograph our photo ID and upload it to a government website. It's not fair to the poll workers, who tend to be older and therefore more vulnerable. It's not fair to all the people who are trying to do social distancing but are thinking of deviating from the practice to venture into a place they know isn't right. What's the legitimacy to that outcome?

I'm rather sure that if the conservative candidate for state Supreme Court justice wins that liberals will think it's because right-wingers are dismissive of the limitations of social distancing and because poor, urban voters felt confused or intimidated. If the liberal candidate for state Supreme Court justice wins, I suspect conservatives will have theories of their own, though they don't spring to mind so easily. Absentee votes were "harvested"? Young people, feeling invulnerable, showed up in disproportion?

Anyway, it's actually still not too late to get an absentee ballot. A federal judge extended the deadline until this afternoon at 5. Go here. And go here if you want to get hired as a poll worker (and you're healthy and under 60).

If you're considering voting in person, know that your health will be safeguarded with "curbside voting" ("for those with underlying health conditions, recent symptoms or a cold or illness, or recent exposure to someone who is sick" (no requirement that you sign the poll book)), plexiglas shields between voters and poll workers (with the poll book passed to you under the shield), allowing you to use your own pen (blue or black), a supply of disinfectant spray, wipes and hand sanitizer (enjoy inhaling the spray), the floor marked with tape so you can see how to stay 6 feet apart, and a screening of the poll workers (done by asking them questions about their health).

ADDED: I'm trying to picture the plexiglas shield configuration. Is this something like a salad bar?

AND: Here's a Wisconsin State Journal article about yesterday's federal court decision:

In his 53-page ruling, [U.S. District Judge William Conley] criticized the “political considerations” he said influenced the decision of state officials, including Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican leadership in the Legislature, to hold the election despite the threat to public health.

At least it was bipartisan! Conley is an Obama appointee (if that's your question).

“Contrary to the view of at least a dozen other states, as well as the consensus of medical experts across the country as to the gathering of large groups of people,” Conley wrote, “the state of Wisconsin appears determined to proceed with an in-person election on April 7, 2020.”

But Conley said the only role of a federal district court “is to take steps that help avoid the impingement on citizens’ rights to exercise their voting franchise,” as protected under the Constitution and in federal law. “That is what the court attempts to do … understanding that a consequence of these measures may be to further the public health crisis in this state,” Conley wrote. “Unfortunately, that is beyond the power of this court to control." 

ALSO: After a commenter here said that it was not necessary to upload a photo ID to get an absentee ballot, I went to the site to try to get an absentee ballot for the April 7th election. After I entered my name and address, I was confronted with this:



I checked the box for the August 11th primary. I did that after some reading and because I did not want to vote absentee in the big presidential election in November. I was confused by the August 11th primary date and wondered if the primary was being moved and mused about whether there was another primary in August. I didn't know, but the yellow banner made me think that I'd get an absentee ballot if I requested one of these other ballots. I see now that I would not have received an April 7th ballot, and that in fact, I'd have to check the box for voting absentee to the end of the year to get an April 7th ballot. Despite taking almost 5 minutes to read the fine print, I did it wrong. I'm a law professor, and I tried to read it, and I did it wrong. But it didn't matter, because when I continued to the next page, I saw this:


They need the photo ID uploaded. Fortunately, I bailed at that point. I say fortunately, because if I had gone to all that trouble I would NOT have received an April 7th because I'd made a mistake on the previous page.

IN THE COMMENTS: People keep prodding me about how I could accomplish the task of requesting an absentee ballot (as if I don't know how to take and send a photo with my iPhone). I say:

And you are missing my point if you stress whether I personally can find a way to vote absentee. I am using myself to test what it's like to be a person who wants to vote and is trying to interface with the system, and I am trying to form an opinion about how hard (and how trustworthy) it is. The easier it is, the less trustworthy it feels, but the harder it is, the less fair it feels. I just don't like it at all!

To think that the law in Wisconsin depends on this! It's annoying enough that we have a liberal and a conservative candidate running for state Supreme Court justice. That alone already makes us skeptical and cynical about the court. But on top of that we need to feel that the election is determined by how different kinds of people react to the threat of the coronavirus!