The Note: Wisconsin primary offers warnings about November realities
Barring last-minute action, voters will cast ballots in person on Tuesday.
The TAKE with Rick Klein
Leave it to Wisconsin to deliver political lessons neither party is quite ready to learn.
Barring last-minute legislative or judicial action, voters will cast ballots in person across Wisconsin on Tuesday. It’s a primary nobody -- least of all medical professionals -- really wants, but that nobody has been able to figure out how to avoid.
The Republican-led legislature didn’t move on the Democratic governor’s request to change the primary date over the weekend. And the Republican National Committee and state GOP are appealing to the Supreme Court to block expanded absentee balloting that’s intended to keep more voters from having to physically go to voting sites.
Sen. Bernie Sanders wants the primary delayed; perhaps coincidentally, he’s expected to lose Wisconsin. The front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, is deferring to state officials -- even while acknowledging that the Democratic National Convention, now scheduled for August in Milwaukee, may have to go virtual because of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Trump campaign is criticizing Biden for wanting the primary to move ahead. But President Donald Trump wants voters to support a favored state Supreme Court candidate who is on the ballot Tuesday, and Republicans fear keeping voting open longer will favor the candidate favored by the Democrats.
Earlier last week, Trump conceded that expanding voter access the way Democrats want could mean that “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Already, talk of a fourth congressional relief package is getting bogged down over the issue of whether and how to assist states in mail-in and absentee voting, even as some states redirect money previously set aside for that purpose.
In an alternate universe, Tuesday’s primary would bring valuable insights about appeal and messaging in a critical battleground state.
In the real world, the election results may be the least interesting thing to come out of Wisconsin. It could be a scary microcosm of what to expect when, and if, other states adjust to the realities -- political and otherwise -- in an age of contagion.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
As members of Congress assist in emergency efforts in their own districts, there is plenty of work to be done back in Washington too. In the next few days and weeks, leaders on Capitol Hill will be expected to make big moves on two fronts: drafting the next possible relief legislation and getting a jump start on meaningful oversight of the money that is already moving out the door.
In a letter to her colleagues over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined her goals for the next emergency relief package. Notably, she backed away from a push on infrastructure, which was a goal she discussed in the past two weeks but Republicans slammed. Instead she mostly talked about resources for medical professionals and small businesses, as well as additional unemployment benefits and payments to families.
Late last week, Pelosi tangled with Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Republicans over the possibility of forming an additional oversight committee on Capitol Hill to keep tabs on the implementation of the $2.2 trillion emergency law already signed into place. The law calls for a built in oversight team, but Pelosi has been pushing for more eyes dedicated to the project.
The size and scale of that relief package was unprecedented. Millions of small businesses are now eligible and applying for funds -- meaning sophisticated systems will be needed to avoid fraud and make sure the money gets into the right hands when so many need it.
Last Friday, when a set of loan applications went live, small business owners coast to coast vented their frustrations to ABC News. Some banks had made surprising decisions on their own about which firms they planned to prioritize and others told clients they just did not have enough information yet from the federal government to start loaning money.
The TIP with Kendall Karson
In Wisconsin, not even a global pandemic appears able to usher in some much needed bipartisanship as the state hurtles towards Tuesday's in-person spring election. "We are in a car going very fast, and we're approaching the edge of the Grand Canyon," Mark Thomsen, a Democrat on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said. "They have the complete ability to have us land safely, or leave us in this chaos."
In the absence of a solution from state leaders, who remain -- for now -- at a standstill over nearly every aspect about how to run the election, local leaders, including some from the state's largest cities, are turning to Wisconsin's top health official to invoke emergency powers to scrap in-person voting on Tuesday -- a route similar to the one Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, took last month even closer to the opening of the polls. "The lives of our constituents depend on it," a letter signed by ten mayors reads.
Election officials bracing for the unprecedented election are gearing up -- literally. Some areas are undertaking drive-thru and/or curbside voting to minimize the risk. For election day, the state procured nearly 6,000 liters of hand sanitizer to distribute to county clerks, as well as about 7,000 paper towel rolls and at least 750,000 disinfecting wipes. Poll workers, meanwhile, will be wearing masks and gloves -- but with nearly 60% of municipalities across the state reporting severe poll worker shortages, it's unclear how many of them will actually show up.
Monday is the last day for any major action to stop the election -- but with in-person voting still very much on, the best outcome appears now to minimize the number of voters at the polls to limit the health risk for them, and for those helping the election go forward.
ONE MORE THING
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that the recently delayed Democratic Convention will have to happen, but conceded that it may need to be held virtually if the novel coronavirus continues to pose a public health threat by mid-August.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Monday morning’s episode features ABC News Chief Medical correspondent Dr. Ashton, who clears up some common misconceptions about the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on wearing protective face coverings in public. Then, ABC News Chief National correspondent Matt Gutman tells us why church services have become a flash point as officials try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
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