The Washigtnon Post - 03.04.2020

a2 eZ su the washington post.friday, april 3 , 2020

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the coronavirus pandemic

BY MICHAEL SCHERER

AND ANNIE LINSKEY

Democrats delayed their presi-
dential nominating convention
Thursday until the week of Aug. 17
to increase the likelihood that the
party can still hold an in-person
gathering in Milwaukee amid the
coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to reschedule
from July puts the Democratic
gathering one week before the
Republican convention in Char-
lotte starting Aug. 24, which both
President Trump and Republican
National Committee Chairwom-
an Ronna McDaniel pledged re-
cently will go f orward.
Trump said last week that there
was “no way” his convention
would be canceled, and McDaniel
said that planning for a “full seat-
ed” convention was moving “full
steam ahead.” But Democrats
have taken a far more cautious
approach, in part because their
convention was originally sched-
uled six weeks earlier in the sum-
mer to accommodate the Summer
Olympics, which have since been
canceled.
“In our current climate of un-
certainty, we believe the smartest
approach is to take additional
time to monitor h ow this situation
unfolds so we can best position
our party for a safe and successful
convention,” J oe Solmonese, CEO
of the Democratic National Con-
vention Committee, said in a
statement Thursday.
Former vice president Joe
Biden, who is leading in delegates
for the nomination, made clear
this week that he welcomed a
delay.
“I think it’s going to have to
move into August,” Biden said
Wednesday on “The To night Show
Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
The postponement is only the
latest sign of a presidential con-
test upended by the coronavirus,
which has killed more than
50,000 people worldwide and
more than 5,600 in the United

States, and cost Americans mil-

lions o f jobs.

Several states that had planned

to vote in late March or April

postponed their primaries, ex-

tending the end of the nominating

season — and the determination

of a winner — well into June,

potentially costing the party

months of general election orga-

nizing.

When it comes to the summer

conventions, Democrats had wor-

ried that their event would be

canceled but that the Republican

one would still be able to go for-

ward, delivering Trump a clear

advantage in the televised specta-

cle that marks the start of the

general election.

By tradition, the party t hat does

not hold the White House goes

first in the nominating contest.

Both parties depend on live media

coverage of the events, p articular-

ly by broadcast networks, to rein-

troduce their candidates and

campaign themes before the final

sprint to the election.

Democratic officials said the

August event would still be sub-

ject to the recommendations of

federal and state health officials,

who have signaled that they are

waiting for data on the course of

the coronavirus pandemic.

“When it goes down to essen-

tially no new cases, no deaths at a

period of time, I think it makes

sense that you’re going to have to

relax social distancing,” the na-

tion’s top infectious disease ex-

pert, Anthony S. Fauci, said this

week when asked about the sum-

mer conventions.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), a

co-chair of the convention host

committee, said she spoke with

Democratic Chairman Tom Perez

last month, shortly after the first

case of covid-19 was diagnosed in

the state.

“I said to him that my third-

grade teacher told me that the

biological definition of survival

was the ability to adapt t o change,”

Moore said in an interview Thurs-

day. “We are going to be re-envi-

sioning different kind of spaces.

For example, the convening of the

Rules Committee — that might

have to be a much b igger venue so

Democrats push back

convention t o August

that people can space themselves

appropriately. There might have

to be rules around microphones

so that everyone will be clean.”

Democratic convention orga-

nizers have spent the past two

weeks working on c ontingency

plans for the convention, explor-

ing virtual voting options and a

new schedule. Major contracts for

a July convention were due to be

signed in the coming weeks, put-

ting pressure on organizers to

make a decision.

Both national party and local

officials have tried to emphasize a

commitment to holding the event

in Wisconsin, a key battleground

state that Democrats lost in 2016.

“The convention team is totally

focused on accomplishing two

goals, which are protecting the

health and safety o f Wisconsinites

and making sure we launch the

Democratic nominee in a way that

is unmistakably Wisconsin,” Wis-

consin Democratic Party Chair

Ben Wikler said Wednesday.

A person familiar with the Re-

publican deliberations said

Wednesday that the president re-

mained determined to go f orward

with his convention and that

many donors to the event think

the coronavirus is less of a con-

cern, because they are not in plac-

es that are currently affected by it.

But a fully virtual convention,

or one with far fewer people than

normal, is still a real possibility for

both parties, which have recently

taken steps to allow for voting

delays and virtual meetings as the

nomination process moves for-

ward. Local health officials in

Wisconsin and North Carolina a re

likely to be wary of a large influx of

out-of-state travelers if the pan-

demic i s still spreading.

“You go to a swing state, which

both of these are, you don’t want

to leave them with 10,000 cases of

covid-19,” f ormer Democratic Par-

ty chairman Howard Dean said.

“You just may not be able to have

20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 peo-

ple.”

Democratic committee mem-

bers believe that an electronic vot-

ing system for the nearly 4,

delegates would be far m ore man-

ageable than the problematic

electronic system that marred the

Iowa caucuses. Unlike a regular

election, votes at the convention

are cast publicly, so they are easier

to verify after the fact. Only five

votes must be held — three for

committee reports, one for the

presidential nominee and one for

the vice p residential nominee.

The original plans for the Mil-

waukee convention presumed

that as many as 50,000 people

from around the country would

come to the city, including about

15,000 journalists and nearly

4,000 party delegates. The city’s

original bid identified 15,000 ho-

tel rooms and 500 buses that

could be used for the four-day

event.

Concern in the state has grown,

however, as the coronavirus has

spread throughout the country,

leading to stay-at-home orders for

most Americans.

A poll by Marquette University

last week found that 62 percent of

Wisconsin voters did not want the

convention to move forward as an

in-person event. That i ncluded 69

percent of Democrats, 62 percent

of independents and 55 percent of

Republicans.

But there is concern in both

parties that any switch to a virtual

convention, without a live event

for reporters to cover in person,

will lower the network interest in

covering the spectacles and limit

their r each.

“The less newsworthy they be-

come, the less coverages there is.

And events are newsworthy,” said

Erik Smith, a Democratic consul-

tant who helped plan his party’s

last three events.

“The truth is this is not some-

thing that people are going to

walk away f rom easily.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

Josh dawsey contributed to this

report.

darren hauck For the washington post

The Democratic Party rescheduled its presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee from July to the week of Aug. 17. A poll last week

by Marquette University found that 6 2 percent of Wisconsin voters didn’t want the convention to move forward as an in-person event.

contest, but former vice president

Joe Biden t old r eporters Thursday

that the question is “for the Wis-

consin courts and folks to decide,”

adding that he thinks it’s possible

to hold an election during the

pandemic with more mail-in bal-

loting.

Voting-rights a ctivists and local

election administrators in Wis-

consin painted a dire portrait of

the risk of infection to poll work-

ers and voters, saying how diffi-

cult it would be to administer

elections under those circum-

stances.

More than 100 municipalities

reported not having enough poll

workers to open a single voting

location. State officials predicted

that tens of thousands of voters

who have flooded election offices

with mail-ballot requests in recent

days were at risk of not receiving

them on time.

Scott McDonell, the Dane

County clerk, who spent Thursday

distributing to city and town elec-

tion officials masks, gloves and

“170 proof” s anitizer c ooked up b y

a local distillery, said his biggest

concern is the likely spread of the

virus on Tuesday. N ew p rojections

place April 7 near the peak of

Wisconsin’s coronavirus out-

break.

“I agree with the judge that it’s

extremely dangerous for us to go

forward with an election right as

this pandemic is accelerating,”

McDonell said. “But that’s what’s

going to happen, so we’re plan-

ning the best we can right now to

make it work on Tuesday.”

Leaders in the Republican-con-

trolled legislature argued that

moving the voting date so late in

the process would sow confusion

and c reate a leadership vacuum in

cities and towns holding contests

for municipal posts that will be

vacant a s early as mid-April.

Voting rights groups turned to

the federal courts for interven-

tion, supported by national Demo-

crats and some county clerks in

the state. National Republicans

are helping defend the decision to

go f orward with v oting next week.

A lawyer for the Republican

National Committee and the Wis-

consin Republican Party, Patrick

Strawbridge, filed a notice of ap-

peal soon after Conley issued his

opinion. The Republican legisla-

ture filed a n appeal Thursday, t oo.

“It is unprecedented to allow

votes to be cast after Election Day

has already occurred, and we are

BY AMY GARDNER

A federal judge on Thursday

declined to postpone Wisconsin’s

scheduled April 7 presidential p ri-

maries amid widespread worries

that holding elections during the

coronavirus pandemic could risk

public health a nd curtail access to

the p olls.

The ruling from U.S. District

Judge William M. Conley means

Wisconsin will remain the only

one of 11 states originally sched-

uled to hold contests in April that

has n ot postponed o r dramatically

altered voting a mid t he pandemic.

However, in a 53-page ruling,

Conley extended the deadline for

absentee ballots to be requested

by voters f rom Thursday to Friday,

and extended the deadline for

completed ballots to be received

by local election officials by six

days: from 8 p.m. on April 7 to 4

p.m. on April 13.

He also prohibited the state

from enforcing the requirement

that absentee ballot envelopes

bear a witness signature when vot-

ers include a statement that they

were unable to obtain one safely.

Conley made clear that he dis-

agreed with the state’s decision to

go forward with the election, but

he explained that he was con-

strained to consider only the con-

stitutional rights of voters — not

public health.

“Without doubt, the April 7

election day will create unprece-

dented burdens not just for aspir-

ing voters, but also for poll work-

ers, clerks, and indeed the state,”

Conley wrote. “A s much as the

court would prefer that the Wis-

consin Legislature and Governor

consider the public health ahead

of any political considerations,

that does not appear in the cards.

Nor is it appropriate for a federal-

district court to act as the state’s

chief health official by taking that

step for them.”

Conley also reserved the right

to judge that voters’ rights have

been infringed — something that

he said could not be a ssessed until

Election D ay.

It is unclear what action he

would take if he concluded that, as

he wrote, “the actual voter turn-

out, ability to vote on election day

or overall conduct of the election

and counting votes timely has un-

dermined citizens’ right t o vote.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Ver-

mont) this week urged state offi-

cials this week to postpone the

appealing the judge’s decision in

order to uphold the integrity of

our elections,” RNC national press

secretary Mandi Merritt said in a

statement.

The power to delay an election

in Wisconsin lies with the legisla-

ture, but Scott L. Fitzgerald, the

Republican majority leader in the

Senate, and the Republican state

House speaker, Robin Vos, noted

that Gov. Tony Evers (D) did not

push to postpone Tuesday’s vote,

either.

“If I could have changed the

election on my own I would have

but I can’t without violating state

law,” the governor said in a state-

ment Wednesday night. “I’ve

asked the legislature to do its part

to ensure a fair and safe election

and I hope we can get some clarity

as soon a s possible.”

Evers announced Wednesday

that he will deploy the Wisconsin

National Guard to help staff poll-

ing locations with sharp deficits of

workers.

At a news conference Wednes-

day, Vos said he plans to volunteer

at the polls on Tuesday, and en-

couraged others to do the same.

“I feel safe being there because

of the safeguards being put in

place by local governments and

the Wisconsin Elections Commis-

sion,” Vos said. “If you’re bored at

home and sick of w atching N etflix,

volunteer to go and help at the

polls.”

Evers had previously asked for

mail ballots to be sent to every

registered v oter. He a lso asked t he

legislature to lift photo ID require-

ments for mail-in voters, extend

in-person early voting through the

final weekend before the election

and move back the deadlines for

returning absentee ballots, as well

as counting them. The legislature

had r ejected his requests.

“In the absence of the Legisla-

ture doing its part to ensure a fair

and s afe e lection, I appreciate that

the court chose to implement

some of the common-sense solu-

tions that I’ve been advocating

for,” t he governor said in a state-

ment Thursday. “It’s great news

that Wisconsinites will have more

time to request and submit a bal-

lot and that clerks will have more

time to count b allots. I continue to

encourage every Wisconsinite to

request their absentee ballot and

vote safely from home.”

[email protected]

Matt Viser contributed to this report.

Federal judge declines to delay Wis. primaries, set for Tuesday

rick wood/Milwaukee Journal-sentinel/associated press

Katherine Katsekes, left, and Diane Scott sort absentee ballots in Brookfield, Wis. The judge’s ruling

extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be requested and for completed ballots to be returned.

“I agree with the judge that it’s extremely dangerous for us to go forward with

an election... But that’s what’s going to happen, so we’re planning the best

we can right now to make it work on Tuesday.”

scott Mcdonell, dane county clerk