it pertains to limiting the spread of the disease. the concern is that the original order has had adverse effects on the industry already and that another extension could cause many of the businesses within the industry to not survive. david yandell, the owner of a gym, sued the city of racine after the municipality issued its own stay at home order after the state supreme court struck down governor evers' order. racine county judge jon fredrickson issued a temporary injunction against the order while a civil suit against the city is pursued. on april 16, 2020, dave eliot, the publisher of several door county, wisconsin periodicals argued that locals should stop being so mean to those who support the local economy and advised people not shoot the golden goose. he also wanted locals to remember that resources such as the hospital were available to the community because of donations from seasonal residents. after governor evers issued another order in october 2020 limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public locations, the tavern league of wisconsin filed a lawsuit in sawyer county. league president chris marsicano stated "restaurants, taverns, bars, and supper clubs did not cause this pandemic, but they are systematically facing bankruptcy, closure, and economic ruin". judge john m. yackel subsequently ordered a temporary restraining order halting the order. the order was set to limit gatherings to 25% capacity at restaurants, taverns and supper clubs. a few days later, judge james babler of barron county reinstated the order stating "plaintiffs and interveners have not shown that they are entitled to a temporary injunction". in egg harbor, a manufacturer made components needed to make ventilators, and a distillery made hand sanitizer. in sturgeon bay, one manufacturer switched to producing reusable face masks and intubation boxes, while another designed a device intended to kill viruses and other pathogens on face masks and other personal protective equipment. a responsible business brand promise program was announced in door county on may 15. it is not a certification and intentionally lacks enforceability with either the visitor bureau or hospital in order to direct any liability to the individual businesses should someone get infected. also on may 15, the county extended quarantine restrictions locally. this extension was ended one day early on may 19 when the county reopened all businesses, but asked people to limit travel and follow other voluntary safety precautions on the basis of "scientific data, local information, and the benefits associated with continuation/resumption of local personal activities and business" and the expectation "that individuals and businesses will voluntarily" obey the precautions. citizenry thousands of citizens protested at the capitol in madison on april 24 in response to evers' extension of the 'safer-at-home' executive order. among the reasons for protest include many businesses that have closed or significantly reduced the workforce, which has led to hundreds of thousands of unemployment claims. also, churches have closed their doors and about 900,000 children are not in school. over 100 people protested outside the mequon-thiensville school district headquarters holding signs demanding that the schools open for in-person instruction. concerns raised by the protesters included the difficulty for parents that are employed and being able to work with the virtual learning arrangements, as well as social and emotional well-being of the students. the school district decided to go to a virtual format due to health concerns related to the covid-19 pandemic. prior to the first confirmed case in door county, hundreds of vehicles with out-of-state license plates were seen across multiple communities, even though the shops were still boarded up for the winter. the president of the door county visitor bureau said, "it seems like everybody thinks this is the hiding place and they all want to come here." as the county under ordinary circumstances only has the capacity to support 25 hospital patients (including four intensive care beds), the county government, along with multiple community governments, advised seasonal residents not to come to the county yet, or if they do anyway, to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. postal address change records indicated that, prior to april 3, at least 420 seasonal residents relocated to the county. that was considered unusual since seasonal residents usually tend to arrive later on. the publisher of several county-related periodicals argued that locals should stop being hostile to those who support the local economy. he also wanted locals to remember that resources such as the hospital were available to the community because of donations from seasonal residents. private campgrounds were permitted to allow people with sufficiently advanced campers to camp beginning on april 24. the communications and public relations director of the door county visitor bureau expressed concern about what locals were posting on social media and warned people to "mind your ps and qs" because it would impact traveler sentiment. in november, five private schools and some families petitioned the wisconsin supreme court asking that the racine unified school district be prevented from requiring all students to do online learning as opposed to in person instruction. the wisconsin institute for law and liberty filed the petition on behalf of the schools and families. the wisconsin supreme court granted an injunction in favor of the schools and families pending a review of a similar case in dane county. religious ceremonies and masses the archdiocese of milwaukee initially suspended all masses from march 18 through april 3. also, catholic schools would cease in-person instruction. archbishop jerome listecki later extended the suspension into holy week, including easter mass, choosing to live stream all such ceremonies from an otherwise empty cathedral of st. john the evangelist (the archdiocese then paid for time on wvtv and wisn-tv to telecast both the good friday and easter masses live across the entire milwaukee market). in early may, archbishop listecki announced that masses could resume may 31 with churches filled at 25% capacity and lifting dispensation for mass to july 5. the dispensation from mass has since been extended through september 13. on august 22, bishop donald j. hying expressed extraordinary disappointment at the timing of a dane county order to close in person instruction at schools that requires virtual instruction instead, which gave the parents less than sixty hours to make home-based arrangements. on august 28, 2020, madison's st. ambrose academy and seven dane county parochial schools filed an original action in the wisconsin supreme court challenging the county health office's emergency order on religious liberty grounds and as lacking statutory authority. statistics by county racial disparities propublica conducted an analysis of the racial composition of covid-19 cases in milwaukee county dating through the morning of april 3, 2020. they noted that african americans comprised nearly half of the county's cases and 22 of the county's 27 deaths. both the county and city of milwaukee passed resolutions in may and june 2019, respectively, declaring racial inequality to be a public health crisis, despite the fact that both asian americans and mexican americans live substantially longer than whites. impacts education virtual instruction has been held in the milwaukee public schools since march 2020 due to the pandemic. the guardian reported that dan rossmiller of the wisconsin association of school boards indicated that "it's not only a question of how we get these kids back to where they would have been had the pandemic not occurred, but how do we get them back to where they should be?" in response to the detrimental effect the lack of in-person instruction has had on the inner city schools. the effects of school closures due to the pandemic will be far-reaching, according to experts. one study estimates that students may lose five to nine months of learning by july 2021, on average. students of color could fall six to twelve months behind. for those from economically disadvantaged families, the results compound. principal keith carrington of north division high school said "there's been an uptick of violence in our homes. more students calling to say they're depressed. a lot of calls from parents who say they're at their wits' end. racial unrest. families going without food." also, while suburban school districts have returned to in-person instruction, with some offering a mix of in-person and online learning, classes in milwaukee public schools have remained virtual as of january 2021. the center for disease control released a study at the end of january 2021 covering the period august 29, 2020 through november 29, 2020 for 17 schools covering kindergarten through grade 12 in wood county, wisconsin. politics and elections main article: impact of the covid-19 pandemic on politics the 2020 democratic national convention was originally scheduled for july 13–16 in milwaukee at the fiserv forum arena, was but postponed to august 17–20 on april 2. in wisconsin, the april 7 election for a state supreme court seat, the federal presidential primaries for both the democratic and republican parties, and several other judicial and local elections went ahead as scheduled. due to the pandemic, at least fifteen other u.s. states canceled or postponed scheduled elections or primaries at the time of wisconsin's election. with wisconsin grappling with their own pandemic, state democratic lawmakers made several attempts to postpone their election, but were prevented by other republican legislators. governor tony evers called the wisconsin legislature into a special session on april 4, but the republican-controlled assembly and senate gaveled their sessions in and out within seventeen seconds. in a joint statement afterward, wisconsin's state assembly speaker robin vos and senate majority leader scott fitzgerald criticized evers for attempting to postpone the election, for not calling a special session earlier, and for reversing his previous position on keeping the election date intact. on april 6, evers attempted to move the election by an executive order, but was blocked by the wisconsin supreme court. on the same day, a separate effort to extend the deadline for mailing absentee ballots was blocked by the supreme court of the united states in a 5–4 vote. in her dissent, justice ruth bader ginsburg warned that the ruling "will result in massive disenfranchisement." the only major concession achieved was that absentee ballots postmarked by april 7 at 8 p.m. would be accepted until april 13. however, local media outlets reported that many voters had not received their requested absentee ballots by election day or, due to social distancing, were unable to satisfy a legal requirement that they obtain a witness's signature. lawmakers' decision to not delay the election was sharply criticized by the editorial board of the local milwaukee journal-sentinel, which had previously endorsed the republican former governor scott walker. they called the election "the most undemocratic in the state's history." the new york times characterized the election as "almost certain to be tarred as illegitimate," adding that the inability of the state's lawmakers to come to an agreement on moving the election was "an epic and predictable failure." the newspaper placed the political maneuvering as part of another chapter in "a decade of bitter partisan wrangling that saw clinically attack and defang the state's democratic institutions, starting with organized labor and continuing with voting laws making it far harder for poor and black residents of urban areas to vote." republicans believed that holding the election on april 7, when democratic-leaning urban areas were hard-hit by the pandemic, would help secure them political advantages like a continued 5–2 conservative majority on the wisconsin supreme court (through the elected seat of daniel kelly). when the election went ahead on april 7, access to easy in-person voting heavily depended on the area. in smaller or more rural communities, few issues were reported. in more urbanized areas, the pandemic forced the closure and consolidation of many polling places around the state despite the use of 2,500 national guard members to combat a severe shortage in poll workers. the effects were felt most heavily in milwaukee, the state's largest city with the largest minority population and the center of the state's ongoing pandemic. the city's government was only able to open 5 of 180 polling stations after being short by nearly 1,000 poll workers. as a result, lengthy lines were reported, with some voters waiting for up to 2.5 hours and through rain showers. the lines disproportionately affected milwaukee's large hispanic and african-american population; the latter had already been disproportionately affected