Associated Press

Coronavirus cases that hit record highs this week in Wisconsin continued to soar on Wednesday. And a Republican legislative leader said he was open to approving more aid to combat the virus in the face of a new poll that shows sinking approval ratings for lawmakers less than a week before Election Day.

Democrats and Republicans in the battleground state of Wisconsin were pushing Tuesday to get 320,000 outstanding absentee ballots returned by the close of polls on Election Day. This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to extend the deadline to receive and count ballots, as Democrats had wanted.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck final push,” said Ben Wikler, who chairs the Wisconsin Democratic Party, which has been advocating absentee voting more aggressively than Republicans.

The city of Milwaukee will impose new restrictions on public gatherings as Wisconsin's coronavirus cases surge.

Furloughs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will continue for the first six months of 2021 to offset losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But Chancellor Rebecca Blank offered hope for next year, telling employees on Monday that “we expect to avoid the sort of dramatic cuts that many feared.”

Wisconsin health officials reported Monday that more than 200,000 people have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began in March, a disturbing milestone as the virus continues to surge unabated across the state.

The Department of Health Services reported 2,883, newly confirmed cases on Monday. While that's the lowest daily tally since Oct. 11, it still brought the overall case count to 201,049.

An effort to recall Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over his response to racial injustice protests and the coronavirus has failed, the recall's organizer told supporters on Monday.

Misty Polewczynski, of Burlington, posted on the “Recall Evers Petition” Facebook page on Monday that not enough signatures were collected. She did not say how close the group came to collecting the nearly 670,000 needed signatures and she did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

A Wisconsin appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked Gov. Tony Evers’ restrictions on indoor public gatherings pending appeal, dealing the Democratic governor a setback in his efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases among Native Americans in Wisconsin have tripled since Sept. 1 as the state continues to grapple with the pandemic.

The state Department of Health Services reported 59 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death among Native Americans in Wisconsin on Wednesday. That raised the group's totals to 2,333 confirmed cases and 23 deaths since the pandemic began, a huge jump from the 775 confirmed cases among Wisconsin Native Americans since Sept. 1.

Wisconsin recorded its highest one-day total of new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday and the first patient was admitted to a field hospital near Milwaukee that opened last week to help hospitals coping with the influx of patients.

The surge that began in early September showed no signs of slowing with 48 new deaths reported Wednesday and a whopping 43% of those tested coming back as positive.

A “panicked” Sen. Ron Johnson urged members of the state chamber of commerce in battleground Wisconsin on Wednesday to vote for President Donald Trump, saying he has been praying for a victory and “the other side is not in love with this country.”

Johnson, a Republican in his second term, delivered a harsh assessment of what he thinks a win by Democrat Joe Biden would mean during a virtual meeting of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Johnson decried “anarchists” and “rioters” who he said “are going to dictate to you what you think and how you have to act.”

Confusion could reign in Wisconsin on Election Day when posted results from the closely watched battleground state appear to be complete but don't include thousands of absentee ballots still being counted, members of the state's bipartisan elections commission said Tuesday.

Officials in a northeastern Wisconsin county said Monday that a technical ballot misprint will most likely delay the counting of some absentee ballots on Election Day. But they reassured the public that all ballots will be counted.

The misprint is a scratch that is described as no wider than a fingernail on a timing mark at the edge of the Outagamie County ballot, and it does not impact any contests, candidates or ballot referenda. At least 5,500 absentee ballots are affected, and possibly more, according to an Oct. 15 letter the county sent to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.