Some election clerks are so short of workers because of the coronavirus pandemic that they are planning to shutter polling places around Wisconsin — including many of them in Milwaukee.
And at least one clerk is warning that some voters in the April 7 election won’t be able to return their absentee ballots in time to have them counted.
Milwaukee needs about 1,400 poll workers to run its election but so far has fewer than 400, according to Neil Albrecht, director of the Milwaukee Election Commission. Another 300 workers are needed for the central location where absentee ballots are processed, but fewer than 50 had been hired as of last week.
Training those poll workers is difficult because health officials say people must stay 6 feet away from one another to slow the spread of coronavirus.