Why in the world is Wisconsin still holding a primary on Tuesday?

On March 25, Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued a stay-at-home directive to the state’s residents, telling them to avoid “unnecessary trips” and limit travel “to essential needs like going to the doctor, grabbing groceries or getting medication.”

You’ll notice that Evers didn’t mention in that list of “essential needs” going to a polling place to cast a ballot in the state’s primary set for Tuesday. And yet, as of right now, Wisconsin is the only state in the country planning to hold an in-person primary vote this month — even as the state and the country remains on lockdown to limit the spread of coronavirus.

And reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel suggests that there are already major shortages of poll workers. Wrote the Sentinel’s Molly Beck:

“More than 100 communities in Wisconsin don’t have any poll workers for the spring election in six days and a record number of voters are overwhelming clerks with absentee ballots — leading to warnings that thousands of votes may not be counted.”

So, how the heck did this happen?

Well, politics mostly. Evers is a Democrat. The state legislature is controlled by Republicans. And the two sides simply can’t agree on how to handle the unique primary problem created by the coronavirus pandemic.

The power to postpone the primary lies, technically, with the state legislature. And the state legislature is resistant to changing the date because Tuesday is not just a presidential primary but also one for state and local offices — and there are concerns that some down-ballot offices will be vacant if the primary is postponed.

Republicans also suggest that Evers has not aggressively pushed to postpone the primary. Last Friday, Evers proposed to the state legislature that an absentee ballot be sent to every registered voter, but Republicans and local election officials said it was too late for that. “It is not doable,” Oneida County Clerk Tracy Hartman told the Rhinelander Star Journal. “It is not doable.”

Evers has also proposed using Wisconsin National Guardsmen and women as poll monitors to fill the gaps at various polling places around the state.

All eyes at the moment are on a suit in front of a federal district judge brought in an attempt to force a postponement of Tuesday’s vote. But according to The Washington Post’s Amy Gardner, the judge — William M. Conley — seemed disinclined during a three-hour hearing on Wednesday to wade into the morass.

“Let’s assume that this is a bad decision from the perspective of public health — and it could be excruciatingly bad,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the job of a federal district judge to act as a super health department for the state of Wisconsin.”

If Conley refuses to step in, it’s not clear that Evers and the GOP-controlled legislature will find any sort of accommodation before next Tuesday. And that’s despite the fact that a slim majority of Wisconsin residents, according to a new Marquette Law School poll, want the primary to be postponed; 51% said it should be moved while 44% want the primary to stay on April 7.

That same poll showed former Vice President Joe Biden, the clear front-runner for the nomination, with a 62% to 34% lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders has called on the state to postpone the primary; “People should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote, which is why 15 states are now following the advice of public health experts and delaying their elections,” he said. “We urge Wisconsin to join them.”

That seems very unlikely to happen at this moment. (Again, Conley, the judge, may be the only person with the power to postpone voting at this late date. Which means that Wisconsin will hold a primary not only amid a stay-at-home order but even as more than 1,500 residents have been diagnosed with coronavirus and 28 have died.)

That’s just plain stupid.