The Quiet Before the Storm

For a time, it felt like the election might not be held. Other states were postponing their primary election, and many thought Wisconsin might as well. But an impasse between Democratic Governor Tony Evers and a Republican controlled state legislature quickly derailed the process. State Assembly Speaker Robin Voss and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald refused even to consider a motion from the governor to mail every voter an absentee ballott or hold a sepcial legislative session. In a last ditch effort to delay the vote, Governor Evers issued an emergency proclamation postoning the election less than twenty-four hours before the polls were to open. Voss and Fitzgerald immediately challenged the declaration before the state supreme court, which ruled that night that the governor did not have the power to delay the election on his own and ordered the election to proceed.