Green Bay may cut down from 31 polling sites to just four as 230 poll workers drop out, citing coronavirus fears

GREEN BAY - Green Bay could drop from 31 normal voting sites to as few as four on Election Day as poll workers refuse to show up over concerns about the coronavirus. 

The city is considering the use of four large, "gymnasium-type" polling places for Tuesday's election to minimize the spread of COVID-19 among workers and residents, according to a brief Green Bay filed this week in federal court. The proposal comes after over 230 election workers said they won't work to avoid potential exposure to the virus.

Additionally, 13 of the city's 31 polling locations have already opted not to hold voting, the brief states. Officials did not indicate which sites are closed.

The city filed the brief Monday in support of multiple federal lawsuits that seek to postpone and alter the election as communities across Wisconsin consolidate their polling sites amid a shortage of workers. Municipalities are also contending with an influx of absentee ballot requests from people who want to avoid the polls.

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A federal judge in Madison said Wednesday that he doesn't believe he has the power to postpone the election but would consider making some changes to how it's conducted.

Green Bay filed a lawsuit last month asking a judge to delay the election and move it entirely to mail, but U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that the city and Mayor Eric Genrich didn't have the legal grounds to sue.

Genrich said the city won't make any final decisions until there's a court ruling, but noted that "we are contemplating a dramatic reduction in polling places, based upon the number of trained poll workers that are available."

According to the city's brief, the four polling sites would be staffed by 30 poll workers and chief inspectors working in shifts. But officials argue this solution could cause voter confusion and disrupt the process while still endangering the health of workers and residents who vote in-person.

"Even to the extent a gymnasium space would allow for social distancing, there are multiple opportunities for close contact during the voting process, such as when signing the poll books, and depending upon the number of people in line and any number of other factors, social distancing may become difficult," City Attorney Vanessa Chavez wrote.

Forty-two poll workers so far have agreed to work on Election Day, but the city expects that number to drop because many of them are elderly and at a higher risk of contracting the virus. Only eight additional people have volunteered to step in.

Meanwhile, five employees in the clerk's office have clocked over 120 hours of overtime to manage a surge in absentee ballot requests, the brief states. As of Wednesday, the city had received 16,700 requests and still needed to process about 7,000 of them.

There were roughly 2,700 absentee ballots cast in the 2016 spring election and presidential primary.

Contact Haley BeMiller at hbemiller@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @haleybemiller.