Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include news of the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturning Gov. Tony Evers’ order to halt in-person voting Tuesday. Paula Durrell has voted in every election since she was 18. But she will not be casting a ballot Tuesday in order to protect herself from the coronavirus. Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! The retired 64-year-old breast cancer survivor said she is strictly following Gov. Tony Evers’ “Safer at Home” order and has no plan to break the rules for the spring election. On Monday, the day before the scheduled election, Evers issued an emergency executive order pushing in-person voting for Wisconsin’s spring primary back to June 9, and he called the legislature into another special session. Republican lawmakers in Madison, however, rejected the governor’s order and took the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which reinstated in-person voting for Tuesday. This ballot box drama adds to the anxiety levels of voters like Durrell who worry about risking their health to head to the polls during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Milwaukee, for example, the usual 180 polling sites had been reduced to just five voting centers due to an extreme shortage of poll workers, raising concerns that residents could risk exposure to the coronavirus. “I am a faithful voter for everything. Voting is very important to me,” Durrell said. “But it’s not number one right now under the conditions that we’re living in.” (Photo provided by Paula Durrell) Durrell said she personally knows three people in Milwaukee who have died from the COVID-19 disease, including two from her church in Washington Heights. She has asthma and diabetes, which puts her in a high-risk category for the coronavirus. She doesn’t want to take any chances. “It’s really hitting close to home for me, and it feels like our leaders are not even concerned about the number of people who are dying,” Durrell said. “It’s a shame.” As of Sunday night, Milwaukee County has 1,190 cases of coronavirus, and 39 people have died. In order to vote without leaving her home, Durrell, who described herself as “old school,” would have had to request an absentee ballot before the extended deadline, which was Friday. She said she doesn’t own a computer, has never voted absentee and doesn’t know how to. “I’m really feeling neglected that I’m not going to be out there to voice my opinion or to vote,” Durrell said. “I’m an African American, and we didn’t always have the opportunity to vote, the right to speak, or to have a right to make some kind of decision, and that’s very important to me to let my thoughts be heard.” Her decision is one that thousands of other Milwaukee residents will face leading up to Tuesday. In addition to the presidential primary, Milwaukee’s next mayor, county executive, city comptroller, city attorney, state supreme court justice and other local offices, as well as a major referendum for the city’s public schools, are all on the ballot. Evers held a special legislative session on Saturday in an attempt to push the election back, but it adjourned after a mere 17 seconds with no resolution. Only one Republican legislator showed up to the session. With no action from the state legislature or the governor, the latest rules for the election come from U.S. District Court Judge William Conley. That means the timeline to return absentee ballots has extended to April 13, but you can no longer request a ballot. Early voting continued over the weekend at the drive-thru polling site downtown, but all other early voting sites were shut down on March 22. As of now, anyone in Milwaukee who is not already registered to vote will have to vote in person to exercise their right to same-day registration. Mayor Tom Barrett has joined a list of mayors across the state calling for a cancelation of in-person voting, and County Executive Chris Abele has called for the election to be delayed. Local advocates are concerned that the last-minute adjustments made to Wisconsin’s voting process were too little, and too late, and that they will disenfranchise large numbers of black and brown voters in Milwaukee’s central city. Maya Neal (Photo provided by Leaders Igniting Transformation) “That decision to not do something, in all of these weeks that we knew this would be a crisis, was a decision too, to leave our most vulnerable behind and to disenfranchise these voters,” said Maya Neal, political strategy director for Leaders Igniting Transformation, or LIT, a youth-focused civic engagement and advocacy organization. The first time Evers proposed postponing the election was on Friday.