Why did Gov. Tony Evers, a Wisconsin Democrat, change his mind by trying to postpone the Wisconsin State Supreme Court election this week when both he and Vice President Joe Biden had just recently said that the voting could proceed?

It's really simple. Republican areas in the state had turned in many more absentee ballots than Democratic areas. This was shocking, because most people had assumed the race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders would give Democrats a huge turnout edge. That's when Evers panicked.

To cancel an election the day before the vote — after your state party realizes it might be getting outvoted in absentees — is a pretty cynical move. It is thus disingenuous for Democrats to claim the high ground now.

Evers did not change his outlook based on any public health announcement that COVID-19 projections had worsened. We know this because the only intervening development in the period of Biden's and Evers's change of mind was a positive announcement that fewer deaths were now expected, plus the federal government's endorsement of mask-wearing as a useful protective measure (many people wore masks to the polls, by the way).

If Evers had canceled the voting earlier, before seeing how many absentee ballots came in from Republican areas, this would not be an issue. But he wanted to wait until the eleventh hour. Steps had already been taken to protect health by making voters in one of the most Republican counties in the entire United States (Waukesha County) all vote in one place instead of at their normal voting locations. Likewise, officials had cut down the number of voting places in Democratic Milwaukee County, which is still slated to host the Democratic National Convention this August.

At first, Evers claimed he didn’t have the authority to stop the election. After the absentee numbers came out, he issued an executive order to postpone the election due to the coronavirus and a drastic lack of poll workers. In fact, the National Guard had to step in to take over for precinct workers, and the military follows proper steps to protect themselves and others.

The state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court prevented both this last-minute cancellation and an extension of the deadline for absentee ballots into June.

This is not to say either side is guiltless. Republicans must open up at least a temporary option for easier mail-in and absentee voting in case COVID-19 comes back hard in the fall. Also, Congress should provide the states with $1.6 billion to handle the potential stress on state and local election boards.

Elections are being pushed back all over the place. When done in advance (as in Georgia and Virginia) or when there is no partisan vote at stake (as in Ohio), the benefit of the doubt should go to state officials taking another step along the lines of stay-at-home orders so that the country can slow the spread of COVID-19.

Critics of the Wisconsin vote are seeing the speck in their opponents' eye and missing the beam in their own. They changed their minds about an election only after receiving information that they might lose. That's when they did an about-face and tried to suppress all votes.

John Pudner is the president of the Take Back Action Fund and ran President George W. Bush's faith-based coalition.