Holding Elections During a Pandemic is Undemocratic
If you haven’t heard, we are currently living through a pandemic. The whole nation, as well as much of the world, is shut down, sheltering in place, and social distancing. As a result of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, 15 states and Puerto Rico have delayed their primary elections, as long lines outside of polling places are a perfect environment for the virus to spread.
Apparently, the Wisconsin Republican Party hasn’t heard about the pandemic, or, more likely, doesn’t care. Over the last few days, the Wisconsin GOP has worked tirelessly, in conjunction with Republican-appointed, conservative members of both the Wisconsin and U.S. Supreme Courts, to ensure that voting will happen throughout the day regardless.
In addition to the Democratic presidential primary, Wisconsin voters — Democrat, Republican, and unaffiliated — will elect a spot on the state Supreme Court today. The court is currently Republican-controlled but this election could reduce that to a slim margin, meaning that the winner of tonight’s election will determine its ideological composition; going forward, the court will have power over a Republican effort to purge the state voter rolls, as well as the 2020 redistricting process.
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, had issued an executive order to delay the election and to move much of it to absentee voting, but on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 to stay the order. The order was then struck down by the conservative-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court.
In practice, the GOP has used the pandemic to its advantage, making it into a tool of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. The election process tonight favors Republican voters and candidates significantly, as many absentee ballots never arrived at residences and polling places in major cities have been shut down by public health officials: in Democratic stronghold Milwaukee, where more than 50,000 are expected to vote today, only 5 polling places are open out of 180. However, in many rural and small-town communities, which heavily favor Republicans, the in-person voting process is virtually normal.
The rulings from the U.S. and Wisconsin Supreme Courts sets a dangerous anti-democratic precedent. It allows for political parties to take advantage of crisis as a means to disenfranchise voters from other parties, increasing polarization and breaking down trust in our democratic institutions and democracy itself.
This is by no means the first time Republicans betrayed the democratic system in Wisconsin, having successfully executed, as one Democratic official dubbed it, a “legislative coup” following the 2018 Midterm Elections. In 2018, Democrat Tony Evers won the governor’s mansion from incumbent Republican Scott Walker, only for the Republican-controlled state legislature to strip powers from the governor before he even took office. This is fundamentally anti-democratic, as the voting public elected Evers to be a governor, not to have his powers stripped from his elected position.
The GOP had employed similar tactics in North Carolina, when a Democratic governor was elected in 2016, only to have his powers confiscated by a Republican state legislature, against the election-expressed voice of the people. Republicans also took some powers away from the offices of governor and attorneys general in Michigan after Democrats won those positions in 2018.
Compounding the disastrous and partisan decision to hold an election during a global pandemic, as well as the Wisconsin Republican Party’s history of being undemocratic sore losers and voter suppression, Wisconsin is one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation. Despite the partisan breakdown of the state electorate being roughly even, Republicans won 5 of the state’s congressional seats to Democrats 3 in 2018. The state legislature is even more gerrymandered: in 2018, although approximately 53 percent of votes for Assembly seats went to Democrats, Republicans still won 63 out of 99 seats, giving them nearly a two-thirds majority despite winning less than half of votes.
Though voter suppression and disenfranchisement are more brazen and obvious in some states like Wisconsin, the problem is nationwide and the GOP, alone, is responsible. As the Republican base becomes older and the United States becomes more diverse, the Republican Party will be forced to adapt to survive. In the past decade, the party has done this by shifting its platform to appeal more to blue collar workers, primarily in the Midwest, as well as conservatives and evangelicals. The GOP has become more religious, whiter, and conservative in an effort to establish a stable political base.
However, Baby Boomers and older generations are becoming smaller portions of the electorate as they age, and Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen X are becoming more politically involved and larger populations. In fact, in the 2018 Midterm Elections, those three younger generations outvoted Boomers and older for the first time in U.S. history, casting 62.2 million ballots to 60.1 million.
Millennials are significantly more liberal relative to past generations: 59% of Millennials identify as — or lean toward — Democrats, while only 32% of Millennials prefer Republicans. And Generation Z is even more Democratic, as issues like gun control and climate change have shifted young voters to the left.
This generational change in the composition of the voting public should be a cause of great concern for the GOP, as it is becoming a serious political liability for the party. The Republican Party’s reaction has been dramatic and problematic: to make it difficult, often impossible, for Democrats to vote.
As I see it, this strategy has three possible outcomes. One, the GOP disenfranchisement efforts fail, Democrats are elected regardless, and the GOP loses its base as its anti-democratic foundation is exposed. Two, the GOP succeeds in upending the entire democratic system, putting democracy itself in danger, and leading us further toward autocracy and authoritarianism. And three, the GOP changes course and adjusts its platform to appeal to more of the American people. The choice is up to the party, but to continue voter suppression efforts is morally wrong and politically irresponsible, given the possible outcomes.
Holding an election during a pandemic is idiotic and harmful. The Wisconsin and U.S. Supreme Courts mandating that an election be held in a pandemic to maintain partisan control is downright malicious. Similar efforts to suppress Democratic voters across the country are authoritarian and ultimately will fail to stop the GOP’s demographic time bomb if the party doesn’t change tactics. The priority right now must be to fight the pandemic, though not at the cost of our democracy. Thus, if the Coronavirus pandemic persists throughout the 2020 election process, voting must be done by mail, as mail-in balloting is the only effective voting system which does not put people in danger of contracting the virus.
