US: Wisconsin postpones primary until June over virus

WASHINGTON

Wisconsin became Monday the latest state to delay its presidential primary in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The polls, which were to be held on Tuesday, will instead take place June 9 unless the governor and the state legislature can agree on another date for in-person voting, according to an executive order issued by Gov. Tony Evers.

"Frankly, there’s no good answer to this problem—I wish it were easy. I have been asking everyone to do their part to help keep our families, our neighbors, and our communities safe, and I had hoped that the Legislature would do its part—just as the rest of us are—to help keep people healthy and safe,” Evers said in a statement.

The governor had previously issued an executive order calling on the state legislature to meet in a special session that would have allowed for the vote to be conducted solely by mail. Lawmakers, however, did not act on the recommendation.

Ballots that have already been cast prior to election day will remain valid and will be tallied when in-person voting begins.

All other states with primaries in April have either shifted to a mail-in-only system, or suspended their primaries until a later date.

There are 352,546 coronavirus cases in the U.S., according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Wisconsin has 2,320 infections, including 75 deaths, according to the university's data.