In the season of the coronavirus, campaigns have a new project

A small detail in an article about the Wisconsin primary election still scheduled to go forward next Tuesday caught my eye. Wisconsin Republicans have refused to postpone like other states because they think the extremely probable low turnout will help them win a state supreme court election. So the vote is going on ...

As was almost certain to happen, the state is having trouble staffing polling places.

In Tuesday’s Wisconsin elections, more than 100 municipalities will not have enough poll workers to open a single voting location.

Well, duh ... the sort of folks who staff Election Day are usually older, often retired, none too spry -- just exactly the people most threatened by COVID-19. For sure they aren't going to risk their lives to sit in a drafty auditorium checking lists for little or no pay. Isn't going to happen.

Ordinarily, candidate campaigns haven't paid much attention to whether the local election authorities have recruited enough election day workers. That's their job while campaigns campaign. But, in however many states reject changing to all mail-in voting in November, campaigns are going to have to help the local authorities find enough poll workers. Smart campaigns will be looking among their volunteers for persons who might be willing to become poll workers. We're going to have to encourage an infusion of younger -- or perhaps tested to establish immunity -- workers into election jobs. Their purpose isn't to be partisan. It's simply to ensure a free and fair election can happen at all.