ICYMI: In-person Voting Did not Lead to a Spike in COVID-19

 

April 29, 2020

[Madison, WI] – In case you missed it, in-person voting on April 7 did not cause a spike in cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin despite promises from Democrats that the election would be responsible for an outbreak.

Despite the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s fear-mongering and irresponsible efforts to even fundraise off of a potential spike in deaths of their fellow Wisconsinites, there was not a spike in cases or deaths. Wisconsin proved that with careful planning, we can protect people’s access to the polls while safely and fairly conducting an election. Democrats again engaged in voter suppression by limiting access to the polls and causing mass confusion before election day. Governor Evers had no interest in moving the election until the big party bosses at the DNC finally gave him permission.

“What’s striking here is the disappointment of Democrats, and even their continued denial that there was no election-caused spike in COVID-19 cases. The Wisconsin Democrat party and their allies in numerous media outlets eagerly predicted a massive spike, with gruesome hopes on capitalizing politically. They sought to exploit a global pandemic to fit their narrative and failed,” said Mark Jefferson, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. 

“The over the top, hysterical language used by Democrats leading up to the election that was clearly wrong is exactly why we should not make last minute, unconstitutional changes to our election laws,” said Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Andrew Hitt. “Such dramatic changes under false pretenses erodes our democracy.”  

Read the full write up here, or read excerpts below. 

In-person voting didn’t lead to a spike in COVID-19
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
John Diedrich
April 29, 2020

Three weeks after Wisconsin residents cast ballots, researchers see no spike in COVID-19 cases attributable to in-person voting, though they say the effect from the election may be hidden in the numbers and difficult, if not impossible, to ever detect.

Predicted by some experts and officials, a surge in cases from the chaotic day of voting may have been prevented by precautions embraced at the polls. Wisconsin residents also appeared to follow the stay-at-home orders carefully in the days after the election, data show.

Given the incubation period of the coronavirus, epidemiologists said a surge in new cases would have appeared statewide last week. Except for a slight increase that could have been explained by other reasons, no surge appeared.

“I don’t think that the in-person election led to a major effect, to my surprise. I expected it,” Alagoz said, adding they don’t expect to see a spike in the future.

Officials at the Department of Health Services said they also did not see a spike.

“We didn’t observe any overall significant surge in infections associated with that,” Westergaard said. “There is reason to think some people may have been exposed based on interviews done locally but not enough to create a trend or signal that we can detect on a statewide basis.”

Some have characterized these numbers as an “uptick,” but the experts are cautious.

“With the data we have, we can’t prove an association,” Westergaard said. “It would be speculative to say that was definitely the cause without really investigating closely and being clear that somebody really had no other potential exposure to infected people. I don’t think we have the resources to really do that to know definitely.”

Read the full write up here.

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