Despite coronavirus, Wisconsin is holding an election Tuesday. It could hold lessons for Pa. and N.J.

While most of the country is hunkered down and following directions to avoid crowds, Wisconsin is scheduled to hold a major election Tuesday.

But instead of providing a barometer of a critical swing state, the vote could now offer a different test: how to hold an election during a deadly pandemic.

It’s the only in-person primary still scheduled for April after other states, including Pennsylvania, delayed their elections or shifted to an all-mail system, and it could foreshadow a new reality as the coronavirus threatens to continue disrupting life and as more elections loom in the months ahead.

“Just on the administrative side, lots of states are going to be able to look at Wisconsin and see what worked well and what worked poorly,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On Friday afternoon, Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, called for a special legislative session to delay the election and use mail-in ballots instead.

Advocates for more inclusive and expansive voting rules were already worried Wisconsin was ill-prepared after the virus upended life with stunning speed.

“I’m looking at the communities who either tried to vote and couldn’t, because their ballot was rejected, or didn’t get the proper information, and so never requested an absentee ballot,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the good-government group Common Cause. “I worry about communities that are maybe more rural, don’t have internet, don’t have smartphones. In those communities we have to be thinking much more proactively about how we inform voters about what’s going on in November.”

She added: “Vote by mail is convenient and it works for some people. But that’s with the caveat that the state has the infrastructure to deal with it.”

» READ MORE: Voting by mail is a safe option during coronavirus. Here’s what you need to know about absentee ballots in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Other states now have more time to prepare — Pennsylvania moved its primary to June 2, the same day as New Jersey and Delaware — but with the course of the coronavirus still unclear, they might also face some of the same challenges as Wisconsin.

In more than 100 Wisconsin municipalities there are no poll workers. Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, expected to have five polling sites, instead of the usual 180. Polling places have scrambled to obtain sanitizer and other supplies for staffers and voters.

With a stay-at-home order in place, more than a million absentee ballots have been requested — in a state with 3.3 million registered voters. The surge has overwhelmed election officials. They have run short on envelopes. With staffing down, they have struggled to process the flood of requests and mail out the ballots, which in turn could leave voters with too little time to send them back by the deadline.

Requirements for witness signatures raised alarms, too. How, for example, can those who live alone and who are avoiding contact with others get a witness? Some worry about tribal lands that aren’t served by the post office.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania launches online application for mail-in ballots

How stringent will state officials be in reviewing the ballots? Mail-in ballots are required to have the voter’s signature, a witness signature, the witness’ address, and they must be sealed, Burden said. That creates several hurdles that could result in votes being thrown out.

“This is an election where decision-makers failed to plan for what an election can look like in the midst of a crisis. As a result of that, we have an opportunity to really learn some lessons if we act now,” said Shauntay Nelson, Wisconsin director for All Voting Is Local. The shift to absentee voting is “not something that anyone in the state planned for, because that’s not the way we are used to in Wisconsin.”

Yet voting-rights advocates say that may be the reality for other states in the coming months, and perhaps in November’s general election if the coronavirus continues or surges again.

» READ MORE: 2019 was a big year for voting rights and election reform in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

A coalition of progressive groups has called for $2 billion in federal funding to help states adapt to the increased reliance on mail-in and absentee voting, and the need for health safeguards at polls.

Amid the tumult, the presidential race has gone quiet in a state that is likely to have a huge role in determining the 2020 election.

Wisconsin, like Pennsylvania and Michigan, narrowly tipped to President Donald Trump in 2016, helping to seal his victory. All three are expected to again be vital, and many Democrats see Wisconsin as the toughest challenge of the trio.

So, many analysts were looking to the primary for clues. No longer. Not with the election so frayed.

“What I thought we would be able to get out of this and learn from it, those things are out the window,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School poll.

» READ MORE: These Pennsylvanians love Bernie Sanders. What will they do now that he probably can’t win?

He and others said the presidential campaigns have had almost no visible presence. “I’m just not sure they think the advertising would move the needle much, or if it would be worth it,” said Burden, of the University of Wisconsin.

Instead, the Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders campaigns have leaned on local endorsements and relied heavily on phone calls, texting, and emails to encourage supporters to get mail-in ballots and instruct them on the rules.

The Sanders campaign is contacting supporters through its “Bern” app and with virtual house parties and campus events on Zoom. Biden’s team has held conference calls with pastors and labor leaders, hoping they’ll pass the campaign messages to congregants and union members.

The state gave Sanders a huge primary win in 2016, but Biden led 62% to 34% in the most recent Marquette poll.

“The striking thing is Biden’s consolidating of support from so many of the candidates that dropped out,” Franklin said.

With so many variables, the election results are even more unpredictable than usual, but another big Biden victory could increase the pressure on Sanders to quit the race.

Sanders called Wednesday for the primary to be delayed — “people should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote,” he said — though Biden has not.

The date is up to the Republican-controlled legislature, which didn’t want to move the date, though Evers, the governor, also had made little effort to move it until Friday.

Several lawsuits from voting-rights groups had failed to delay the election, though they won some relief. A federal judge ruled Thursday that he didn’t have the power to stop the “ill-advised” election, but he extended deadlines for requesting and returning absentee ballots, and eased the requirements for witness signatures.

Locals note that aside from the presidential primary, Tuesday is also the day of the general election for mayors, school board seats, and county offices. If it’s delayed, some observers fear, those offices could go unfilled during a crisis. It’s also unclear if later dates would be any more hospitable.

“At least now we know what we’re getting on April 7,” Burden said. “It’s ugly, but it’s known. And what life will be like in May is an unknown.”

It’s an unknown, however, for which other states must prepare.