The Sh*t Show

As the polls opened on Tuesday, April 7, Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela expressed his frustration in an early morning tweet, calling the election a "Sh*t Show." Beyond his frustration with his Republican colleagues over the election, Barnes' sentiment also spoke to the conditions under which voting took place. As it increasingly became clear that the state would not delay the election, roughly seven thousand poll workers backed out of their commitment to work on election day out of fear of their safety. By the time election arrived, a hunded precints did not even have a registered poll worker. As a result, cities had to reduce the number of polling places they could support significantly. For example, in Waukesha, a city 20 miles west of Milwaukee, with a population of 70,000 people, there was only one polling place. Green Bay, a town with a population of 104,879 people, had just two. And in Milwaukee, a city of almost 600,000 people, the number of polling places plummeted from a 180 to just five.

The conditions led to lines several blocks long in the city, with some voters waiting two and a half to three hours to vote. Images of the lines became a national story. An iconic image of a woman waiting in line, wearing a mask, and holding a sign that read "This Is Ridiculous" became particularly iconic. The image's photographer, Patricia McKnight, took all of the photos of the lines herer. She describes the day in the oral history included here as well.