OSHKOSH (NBC 26) -- University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh published new research Monday which claims "a significant association" between in-person voting and the spread of COVID-19 two to three weeks after Wisconsin’s primary election on April 7.
Voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay faced long lines on the primary's election day. Some people stood close together in line and some did not wear protective gear.
UWO stated in a news release that the working paper by UWO economists Chad Cotti, Bryan Engelhardt and Joshua Foster in collaboration with colleagues at Ball State University was posted online with the National Bureau of Economic Research this week. The full paper can be read here.
The team analyzed county-level data from the state of Wisconsin, UWO says.
“Our results confirm the Wisconsin Department of Health Services findings on the link between the spread of COVID-19 and voting using testing and tracing methods,” Engelhardt stated in a news release. “However, the tracing investigation undertaken was not comprehensive, and our results indicate a much larger potential relationship.”
According to UWO, counties that had more in-person voters per location—with all else being equal—had a higher rate of positive COVID-19 tests than counties with relatively fewer in-person voters.
Engelhardt said the team also found a "consistent negative relationship" between absentee voting and the rate of positive COVID-19 tests.
"Our results offer estimates of the potential increased costs of in-person voting as well as potential benefits of absentee voting during a pandemic," reads a statement on the paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research's website.
