More help might be on the way for those in Wisconsin with snaillike internet.
After a tough 2020 in which many students endured remote learning and adults had to work from home, Gov. Tony Evers declared 2021 “The Year of Broadband Access” in his State of the State speech earlier this month. He proposed $200 million in state grants for the expansion of high-speed internet and aid for poor residents to pay for it.
Elections in Wisconsin are by and large going smoothly. I visited the Leisure Center in Menomonie and the polls in Town of Dunn. Both reported that things have been going well, and that they had a very big rush of voters when they opened, but since early morning the traffic has been typical. Town of Dunn reported that they had 620 early absentee ballots filed, and about 200 people had voted in person as of about 1 PM today.
In what will probably be the last candidate forum before next week's election, UW-Stout students held a candidate forum for the 10th Senate District and 29th Assembly District candidates. Note that the video and audio quality is at times spotty - we live in the world of beer, brats, the Packers, and lousy internet bandwidth.
Meagan Wolfe reported this afternoon that 70 communities are still in need of about 200 poll workers, and reminded people that they can see where workers are needed and volunteer at https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/PollWorker. At the moment the City of Eau Claire, City of Menomonie, and Town of Menomonie are on the list of places looking for more workers.
Federal Judge William Conley has ruled that Wisconsin absentee ballots may be counted if they are postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Nov. 9. The ruling also extends the date for requesting absentee ballots by one week, until Oct. 21. The injunction does not take place for a week to allow defendants to make an emergency appeal, which is almost certain to happen. The ruling is attached below. Judge Conley is the same judge who allowed similar changes in voting for the April election.
Although the number of coronavirus positive tests dropped slightly today (which is normal for a weekend) the 1665 new cases were the fourth-highest number of cases in a single day - the three higher numbers were in the previous three days in Wisconsin. The percentage of positive cases topped 20% today, which is disturbingly high.
