The U.S. Supreme Court Monday evening overruled a lower court and declared the polls must open as scheduled Tuesday morning across the state of Wisconsin, despite a global coronavirus pandemic that has killed at least 10,966 people in the United States.
Americans – mostly liberals, progressives, and Democrats – are furious. Republicans, who pushed to open the polls knowing turnout will be slashed, are thrilled.
Going to the polls to vote for many will not only be difficult, but potentially life-threatening.
Focusing her ire on the conservative majority's justices Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Monday night that the Supreme Court was "undermining our democracy." And in her dissent in the Wisconsin case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg warned the ruling could lead to “massive disenfranchisement.”
A great many poll workers, who are often senior citizens and at high risk of death from the coronavirus, refused to show up, forcing the majority of polling places to be shut down.
Here's what the polls looked like when they opened Tuesday morning:
In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, THIS is the line for in person voting as the polls open for Election Day… https://t.co/DCkT0FSTfT— Omar Jimenez (@Omar Jimenez)1586262200.0
This tweet seems to sum up a lot of what many are feeling:
Supreme Court: We're going to delay oral arguments for the first time since the Spanish flu because this pandemic i… https://t.co/SF4HIy02Ae— Dr. Miranda Yaver (@Dr. Miranda Yaver)1586215961.0
More videos of Wisconsin polling places, with what some are saying:
Election officials are furious about this. They say it’s both voter suppression and a dangerous disregard for safet… https://t.co/CSLV4OexEH— Katy Tur (@Katy Tur)1586263636.0
If you think that this is what should be happening today, you’re either uninformed about coronavirus, a nihilistic… https://t.co/AqOGRUQVpz— Ben Wikler (@Ben Wikler)1586261731.0
These people are quite literally risking their lives to vote https://t.co/ojqL4NyDeb— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@Molly Jong-Fast🏡)1586263296.0
But this thread captures the existential anger many are feeling:
I am angry at Republicans, all the way up from the state legislature to the Supreme Court. It's not even the power… https://t.co/gPgXW2LGD3— Daniel Schultz (@Daniel Schultz)1586223020.0
I will never forgive them for throwing out legally requested ballots. I will never forget how they are requiring Go… https://t.co/jxzq8PwdzW— Daniel Schultz (@Daniel Schultz)1586223121.0
So here's partisan thing number one: If I die of this damn stupid virus because I took part in a damn stupid ill-ad… https://t.co/lzZYNoeyPC— Daniel Schultz (@Daniel Schultz)1586223480.0
