Wisconsin lawmaker: CDC report says in-person voting safe
Wisconsin state Sen. Duey Stroebel
(The Center Square) – Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, said a Centers for Disease Control report released last week shows there was no link between in-person voting in April and a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths.
Stroebel said the report supports people who argued Wisconsin could conduct a safe election during the pandemic.
“It’s clear that Wisconsinites can figure out how to manage COVID-19 without Governor Evers or Secretary-designee Palm issuing edicts from Madison,” Stroebel said. “We were able to vote safely in April and I’m confident local leaders will figure out how to safely restart schools this fall with in-person instruction if the Governor does not interfere.”
Stroebel also said Wisconsin should be able to vote safely at the polls this fall as well.
The CDC report noted just a few people who voted in-person in Milwaukee in April tested positive for the coronavirus. But it is impossible to say whether those people picked-up the virus at the polls.
Heading into the April election, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said people would get sick and would die if the election were held.
Neither of those happened.
“The Evers Administration overstated the danger of voting in-person in April and continues to overstate the relative risk of COVID-19 for the vast majority of Wisconsinites,” Stoebel said. “Their narrow focus seems driven by a desire to mandate statewide policy, rather than manage COVID-19 while getting Wisconsin back on track.”
Gov. Evers on Tuesday said the report has not changed his mind about how he handled the coronavirus in March and April, or how he handled the April election.
“The concern people had for their own health, maybe did not end-up with any coronavirus cases being transmitted at least by the CDC’s estimate, but under no circumstances were we ready for the election,” the governor said.
The governor says the coronavirus drove more than a million people to vote absentee in April. He said the virus could drive more than 2 million people to vote absentee in November.
