It is now up to the governor to try to find other emergency measures to delay the election. Evers suggested on Friday that he would attempt to do so.

“If they take no action, we’ll be looking at whatever action we can take," Evers said. “We will continue to find ways to make sure Wisconsinites are safe, and that’s the bottom line.”

But Evers is quickly running out of options. Mayors across the state have pleaded for a delay, amid a severe shortage of poll workers sickened by coronavirus or fearful of contamination. The shortages has meant the closure of polling sites, including in minority areas of Milwaukee.

On Saturday, the Republican National Committee, the Wisconsin Republican Party and the GOP-controlled state legislature sought an emergency stay at the U.S. Supreme Court of a lower court's ruling that expanded absentee voting in the state.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Conley said absentee ballots in the state can be returned through 4 p.m. on April 13, nearly a week after in-person voting is still scheduled to take place. Conley also extended the deadline that has since passed to request an absentee ballot, and waived a witness signature requirement for voters who were unable to “safely obtain a witness certification despite reasonable efforts to do so.”

Following an appeal from Republicans, the 7th Circuit restored the witness signature requirement. The circuit court, however, left the extended absentee ballot timeline in place.

Now, Republicans are asking the highest court in the land to also strike the absentee ballot extension. Republicans are asking for a "stay of the district court’s injunction to the extent it requires the State to count absentee ballots postmarked after April 7, thus clarifying that absentee ballots must be postmarked (or personally delivered to the polls) no later than April 7 in order to be counted."

Outside of the court order, Wisconsin laws usually requires that absentee ballots be returned by 8 p.m. on Election Day. There is no postmark requirement.

A report from the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Tuesday found that nearly 60 percent of Wisconsin’s municipalities were reporting a shortage of poll workers, including more than 100 jurisdictions that said they lacked the ability to staff even one voting site right now.

But Republicans on Friday insisted that voting must go on then criticized Evers for making what they called a last-minute request for a delay.

“Hundreds of thousands of workers are going to their jobs every day, serving in essential roles in our society. There’s no question that an election is just as important as getting take-out food,” a joint statement from GOP legislative leaders said. “Our Republic must continue to function, and the many local government positions on the ballot must be filled so that municipalities can swiftly respond to the crisis at hand. We continue to support what Governor Evers has supported for weeks: the election should continue as planned on Tuesday.”

Evers had previously asked the Legislature to mail out ballots to Wisconsin residents – something Republicans shot down – though the governor did not call for a delay in the primary until Friday. That was after officials in his own party expressed frustration that the governor had not done more to exercise his powers to halt the election amid the health crisis.

Wisconsin's health officials have reported more than 2,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and 56 deaths.