Sanders calls for Wisconsin to delay primary amid coronavirus pandemic

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has called for Wisconsin to delay its primary election next week due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying people “should not be forced to put their lives on the line” to cast their vote.

More than 12 states that were due to hold votes in March or April have already postponed or adapted their primaries in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which cautions against gatherings of more than 50 people to help curb the spread of the virus.

Joe Biden, Sanders’ rival and frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said on Tuesday it was even “hard to envision” that the Democratic national convention would continue as planned in July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, due to the outbreak.

But while Wisconsin has ordered its residents to stay at home, closed non-essential businesses, and placed a ban on “public and private gatherings of any number of people”, it has not yet postponed its elections on Tuesday 7 April, despite coming under heavy criticism.

“People should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote,” Sanders, the Vermont senator, said in a statement. “The state should delay Tuesday’s vote, extend early voting and work to move entirely to vote-by-mail.”

Local election clerks across the state told the AP that poll workers were “quitting in droves out of fears of contracting the coronavirus”. Wisconsin is also staging a state supreme court race and hundreds of local races.

More than 100 municipalities have reported a lack of staff to fill even one polling site.

Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, told a federal judge that he will use members of the state’s army national guard to help as poll workers, but even that move will probably not fill the deficit.

Governor Evers submitted the brief on Tuesday as US district judge William Conley considered three lawsuits seeking to postpone the election. Conley is scheduled to hear testimony on Wednesday afternoon.

Evers and Republican legislative leaders have wanted to keep the Tuesday date, arguing postponement could leave countless local offices vacant.

But the two sides have sparred over how to conduct the election, including whether to relax photo ID requirements to make the absentee voting process easier.

The Democratic National Committee, the state Democratic party and a group of liberal organizations each filed lawsuits last month arguing that in-person voting should be postponed until after the state’s stay-at-home order expires on 24 April.

The order prohibits non-essential activities to slow the virus’s spread. According to a live database from John Hopkins University, 14 people have died from the virus in Wisconsin.

Milwaukee has the highest number of deaths. Nearly a dozen people have died in the city and there are more than 700 confirmed cases.

Evers said the concentration of cases in a largely African American part of the city constituted “a crisis within a crisis”. The CDC has dispatched a team to understand why the state’s coronavirus deaths were concentrated mainly on the city’s north side.

Speaking to MSNBC on Tuesday, Biden said the country had previously managed to hold elections “in the middle of the civil war all the way through to world war two” but acknowledged this election cycle “may have to be different”.

“We should listen to the scientists,” he responded when asked whether it was safe for party leaders to gather for the convention, slated for 13 July in Milwaukee.

State and city leaders had already expressed concern that the future of the state’s primary and the DNC were in jeopardy.

“We are looking at options and waiting for the DNC to make decisions,” Meg Andrietsch, secretary of the Democratic party of Wisconsin, told the Journal Times.

Wisconsin state representative, David Bowen, was the first state lawmaker to be diagnosed with the virus. During a Facebook live, he expressed doubt over the convention’s future.

“At this point, I don’t even see how it’s feasible or possible to have it,” he said “There’s not a lot of information on how it is going to work.”

Still, Bowen hoped the convention would proceed, as he said businesses may not be able to rebound from the coronavirus shutdown without it.

The DNC released a statement this week insisting officials are “exploring a range of contingency options” for the convention “without unnecessary risk to public health”.

Biden has rebuffed calls to cancel or postpone the general election, but has conceded “it may be virtual”.

Sanders has faced increasing calls to drop out of the race, as Biden maintains a wide lead in pledged delegates. But Sanders insisted there is a narrow path to winning the nomination.

• The AP and reporter Danielle Renwick contributed to this report