The 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court order Monday evening blocking a ruling that would have extended absentee voting in Wisconsin’s Tuesday primary was swiftly assailed as a partisan decision that forces residents to choose between efforts to safeguard their lives amid the virus pandemic and the ability to exercise the right to vote.

The Supreme Court majority—Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas—said the issue before the court was “a narrow, technical question about the absentee ballot process.”