Wisconsin's 10 GOP electors formally cast their votes for President-elect Donald Trump Tuesday, a ceremonial step that came under a spotlight four years ago when a different group of Republicans cast fake electoral ballots.
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Speaking to reporters afterwards, Troupis argued he was being targeted, saying Kaul "should be ashamed of himself" for pursuing a "political case."
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The new charges allege longtime Wisconsin GOP attorney Jim Troupis, Kenneth Chesebro and 2020 Donald Trump campaign official Mike Roman defrauded Republicans who cast alternate electoral ballots for Trump.
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Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler launched a campaign Sunday to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee.
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Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler speaks at a climate rally outside Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson's Madison office. On Sunday Wikler announced his bid to lead the Democratic National Committee.(Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler announced Sunday that he is running for chair of the Democratic National Committee.
In a launch video, Wikler described the “permanent campaign” he has created in Wisconsin. After Democrats lost the White House in November and failed to gain a majority in either chamber of Congress, the national party is searching for new leadership and a new strategy. Wikler, in his video, said his record in Wisconsin, a closely divided swing state, can serve as a model.
Under Wikler’s leadership, Wisconsin Democrats reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2022 by a wider margin than Evers won four years earlier. In the most recent election, Democrats reduced large Republican majorities in both houses of the state Legislature, flipping 14 formerly Republican-held state legislative seats.
Those legislative victories came after Wikler and state Democrats helped elect a new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court, setting in motion a process that ended gerrymandered voting maps that had heavily favored Republicans.
Wikler, a prodigious fundraiser, helped the Wisconsin Democrats raise more than $53 million in the last election cycle, according to Open Secrets, more than any other state party in the country. He also opened new Democratic field offices throughout the state and has made it the party’s mission to compete in rural, urban, red and blue areas alike.
“This past election, the nation shifted 6% towards Trump — but Wisconsin only shifted by 1.5%, the least of any battleground state,” Wikler said in announcing his campaign for national party chair.
“I have led the Democratic Party of Wisconsin for the last five years, helping to transform it into an organizing, fundraising and winning machine,” he said, adding, “I’m now running for chair of the Democratic National Committee to supercharge our work in every state.”
Echoing former DNC Chair Howard Dean’s call for a “50-state strategy,” Wikler said, “For Democrats to move forward, we must build a big tent, organize and communicate in every place and on every platform, and find the resources, people, and focus to reach voters who currently get their news about Democrats from Republicans.”
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Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he hopes former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman is disbarred for going "off the rails" during the 2020 election investigation he hired him to lead.
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Rep. Greta Neubauer will once again lead Assembly Democrats as the party takes up a larger share of the chamber going into the next legislative session.
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Republican Eric Hovde has conceded Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. His announcement comes more than a week after unofficial totals showed Baldwin won the race by about 29,000 votes.
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More Wisconsin Latinos voted for President-elect Donald Trump this election than in 2020. Now, both major political parties are trying to figure out how to appeal to this growing and diverse group of voters.
The post How Wisconsin’s Latino voters shifted toward Trump and where the parties go next appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsin State Flag | Getty Images
Look on the bright side — all the talk about a stolen election, massive voter fraud, rigged voting machines and threats against local election workers disappeared overnight. Instead of planning an insurrection, MAGA Republicans have pivoted to picking out their outfits for president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration parties.
The minute it became clear that Trump won, Republican fulminating about “massive cheating” blew over. Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe declared the election in Wisconsin a “great success.” Bipartisan poll watchers agreed: the whole thing went off practically without a hitch. Never mind the WisGOP warnings all day on social media about (nonexistent) illegal voting by noncitizens. Never mind the grandstanding at Central Count in Milwaukee by fake elector scheme co-conspirators Sen. Ron Johnson, elections commissioner Bob Spindell and WisGOP chair Brian Schimming. All is forgiven, because Trump won Wisconsin.
The mechanics of voting are not under attack. Instead, a majority of American voters, including a majority of Wisconsinites, chose to elect a right-wing authoritarian leader and to give his party control of the federal government, apparently because they believe Trump will repeal pandemic-fueled inflation (which is already way down in the U.S.).
As my friend Hugh Jackson, editor of our sister outlet the Nevada Current wrote on Wednesday morning: “the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. judiciary generally, is now even more on track to become nothing more than a functionary outlet for a right-wing extremist and authoritarian executive branch hell-bent on dismantling and superseding the rule of law. Also, poor Gaza. Poor Ukraine (poor Europe). And for all that, and so much more, a box of Honey Nut Cheerios still isn’t going to fall back to 2019 prices.”
Stress-eating leftover Halloween candy while watching the triumph of MAGA well into the wee hours, I remembered I’d agreed to speak to a group of retirees the morning after the election. What was there to say? The election results are a gut punch. Here in Wisconsin we are at the center of it. “You know Wisconsin put Trump over the top,” a journalist in Washington, D.C., texted me, helpfully.
Since I had to pull myself together and try to make sense of the results, I headed downtown and found myself in a room full of friendly faces. There’s no sugar-coating things, I told them. The results are a shock. Especially for Wisconsin’s immigrant community, this is a frightening time and we need to do everything we can to support people and ease the fear and suffering of those who are the targets of terrifying threats.
There are a few bright spots in Wisconsin among Tuesday’s results. In addition to the hiatus on election denial, there are the results of state legislative races — the first to be run with Wisconsin’s new fair maps — which ended the gerrymandered GOP supermajority in the state Senate and yielded a more evenly divided state Assembly.
The end of gerrymandering is the fruit of a long, difficult battle by citizens determined to get fair maps. It’s worth remembering that when all three branches of government in Wisconsin were controlled by a single party, that goal seemed far off. And a hard-fought win it was. We’ve come a long way. Don’t forget that progress is possible. It’s important to combat despair.
There will be a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking of this election. I’ve written about how I believe the Democrats lost touch with their working class base, and how Trump took the opportunity to move into that space with his right-wing populist message.
But the fact is Harris was a powerful candidate who picked up the torch from Biden when he fell apart, painfully, publicly and irretrievably.
There are those who say our country is too sexist or too racist for a woman of color to be elected president. Another white guy would have been better, they suggest. Without a doubt, misogyny and racism were big features of the 2024 campaign. But you don’t beat that backlash by surrendering to it. And we must beat it back. That takes a lot of resilience. Harris took us another step forward in making Americans believe they could elect a female president. It will take more than one or two tries to bring that about.
For now, perhaps the most important thing for all of us who are hurting after this election is to prioritize real, human contact. Remember that you are still surrounded by friends, neighbors and loved ones. We need to connect with each other and stay in touch. As simple and maybe even simplistic as it sounds, we need each other’s company to help get us through this difficult time. We need to see other people in person and we need to take a break from scrolling online.
Being with other people, strengthening our bonds of affection and solidarity, is the foundation of democracy. That’s where we need to start.
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Signs posted inside the Wisconsin State Capitol during debate over redrawing the state's voting maps. The new maps, which created many more competitive legislative voting districts, are in use for the first time for the 2024 election.| Wisconsin Examiner photo.
Wisconsin Examiner reporters are posting live updates here throughout Election Day from polling places, victory parties and on the ground throughout the state. Check back for the latest election news.
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Wisconsin’s election on Tuesday was a “great success,” according to Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe. At a news conference Tuesday night, Wolfe said that outside of bomb threats to polling places that were deemed non-credible, a few bits of disinformation posted online and an incident in Milwaukee that was quickly and transparently resolved, the election went smoothly. At Milwaukee’s central count location where city election officials were processing and tabulating absentee ballots, election observers noticed that the panels on the tabulating machines that cover the USB ports through which results are downloaded no longer had their tamper-proof seals keeping them closed. Election officials determined that the panels hadn’t been locked and “out of an abundance of caution” decided to restart the tabulating process.
Wolfe said every decision about the process was up to Milwaukee officials but that “no equipment malfunctioned, no ballots were compromised, and every step of the process was completed in the public eye by election inspectors from both the Republican and Democratic parties and under the watch of Republican and Democratic observers.”
Also at central count, a prominent election denier who has frequently spread baseless and nonsensical accusations about the state’s election system was posting on social media that Milwaukee election officials were allowing the acceptance of absentee ballots without the required witness signature. That never happened.
Wolfe also debunked videos circulated online that purported to show supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump fighting at a Wisconsin polling place. She said it was clearly disinformation and didn’t take place at an actual Wisconsin poll site.“[It] really serves as an important reminder to just be aware of these disinformation efforts that are ongoing, and to really think critically about the information about elections that you consume,” she said. “Certainly think before sharing information about elections.”
Earlier in the day, the FBI had reported that bomb threats had been made against polling sites in a number of states, including poll locations in Madison. Law enforcement officials deemed the threats non-credible. “At no point today was there an active or credible threat to a polling location that we’re aware of,” Wolfe said.
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Milwaukee Central Count has processed and tabulated more than 80,000 absentee ballots out of the the more than 107,000 cast, Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez said at a news conference shortly after 9:30. Asked about U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s questions about the incident which caused the city to restart counting ballots, Gutierrez said it’s impossible to meet Johnson’s request to compare the exact tally of the more than 30,000 votes that had to be re-run through the machines before and after the recount, because votes are broken down by ward, not by total tally, but that every vote will have been tracked and a chain of custody will be publicly available.
“At the end of the day, every ballot that was here that was legitimate was counted and was counted accurately,” she said. “It was tracked, there is a paper trail, there is a chain of custody, and we are going to get this done.”
Johnson had also criticized the error, in which the sealed panels on voting machines became unsealed, as “sloppy.” Gutierrez countered that, saying a bipartisan decision was made to correct a human error transparently. “We have an extensive chain of custody, we have checks and balances, this is a bipartisan team,” she said. “The observers also play a big role. We have things here that we’re tracking, and this is, this is all of our community’s, City of Milwaukee residents, Democrats and Republicans, and we’re doing this together, and when we saw an issue that was brought to our attention, we reacted swiftly and we acted transparently. So there has been nothing to hide here. Everything is here and tracked. This is not sloppy. This is how we do things, to make sure that things are transparent.”
Last updated: 10:27 pm
3 weeks ago
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson arrived at the city’s central count location shortly after U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wrapped a live TV interview with Fox News from the convention center hall in which he called the error that caused about 30,000 absentee ballots to be recounted a “sloppy” error.
The senator has also been asking city election officials for the exact vote tally of the ballots that had to be recounted to make sure the vote total matches the second time. Officials have said, however, that an exact number doesn’t exist because the vote tallies aren’t tabulated until election workers are done feeding all the ballots into the machines.
The mayor said that it was “an issue that was caught, an issue that was addressed and an issue that we’ve taken seriously” before pointing out the Republicans in the state Senate had killed a bill that would have allowed the city to begin processing ballots on Monday.
“Folks want to have this as a wedge issue,” the mayor said, adding that Milwaukee’s elections are run with the “highest level” of integrity and transparency.
Election workers at central count have now processed and tabulated more than 63,000 votes, meaning it has made up for and doubled the total count from when the process had to be restarted.
Last updated: 9:10 pm
3 weeks ago
Updated: At Milwaukee’s central count location, where election workers had to recount more than 30,000 absentee ballots “out of an abundance of caution” because stickers sealing the panels protecting the USB slots on voting machines became unstuck, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming questioned Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez about the incident. “We’ve got a lot of questions,” Johnson said, asking about the chain of custody on the security footage of the machines and if the Republican party would be able to test if the votes tallied would match after the ballots were recounted. “My concern is I want to know how it opened up.”
Gutierrez said she’s not the commission’s public records staff but everything would be available and that Republican Party attorneys can request everything they need. “We have nothing to hide, request all the records you want,” she said. “We run safe, secure and fair elections,” before telling the pair they could “knock themselves out” and go look at voting machines on their own as election observers. “Let’s go knock ourselves out,” Johnson said before walking to the machines.
Schimming, along with Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell, who also arrived to inspect Central Count, were involved in planning the fake electors scheme, in which Wisconsin Republicans cast fraudulent Electoral College ballots for Donald Trump after President Joe Biden won the 2020 election in Wisconsin.
As part of a legal settlement, Wisconsin’s fake electors agreed not to serve as Trump electors in 2024.
Johnson’s Senate office was involved in attempting to transfer Wisconsin’s fake Electoral College ballots for Trump to Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump pressured to help him overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.
Last updated: 8:57 pm
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At a press conference around 2:30 p.m., Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys said workers at the city’s central count site will keep counting until all of the ballots are tabulated.
“We will keep counting! And we will eat pizza,” Jeffreys said at a press conference this afternoon. “And eat delicious baked goods from one of our local bakeries. And drink coffee.”
Absentee ballots cast by city residents, including in early voting, are consolidated for counting at the central count facility in City Hall. At the end of the day Monday, the city reported having received 20,154 absentee ballots, 40% of the 51,630 registered voters in the city, as of Nov. 1 statistics from the Wisconsin Election Commission’s website.
As of about 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, 3,194 absentee ballots have been counted, the city of Green Bay reported on Facebook.
There have been problems with machines, Jeffreys said. If a machine is not functioning, ballots that were not able to go into the machine are placed in an auxiliary bin.
Asked if there have been complaints of electioneering or inappropriate behavior at the polls, Jeffreys said she received concerns from voters about the closeness of an observer at one location and the closeness of a poll worker at another location. Both voters were concerned about the secrecy of their ballot. Jeffreys said she addressed the issues with chief inspectors.
Jeffreys also said she deferred to the parks and police departments to handle certain complaints as those agencies felt were appropriate “given our guidelines and our access to public spaces.”
“So, there was a gathering over at Joannes Park,” Jeffreys said. “That has nothing to do with my office. There was a DJ who was playing music. That has nothing to do with my office.”
Jennifer Gonzalez, communications coordinator at the Green Bay Police Department, told the Examiner that the gathering at the park was reported due to a political signage. She said the signage was not considered electioneering and did not violate any other laws, so no enforcement action was taken.
Gonzalez said she was told the DJ was playing music near a polling site, and the volume had caused some concern. The person was cooperative and left, she was told.
Anything reportable will be posted to the Green Bay Police’s account on X, Gonzalez said.
Last updated: 7:37 pm
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Updated: Milwaukee Central Count is restarting its count of absentee ballots after the doors on its tabulation machines were mistakenly left open. According to CBS News reporter Katrina Kaufman, Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs said the recount is being done for transparency and so “people can have confidence in the results.”
A.J. Bayatpour of CBS 58 in Milwaukee reports that Milwaukee’s Republican Party Chair Hilario Deleon told CBS reporter Tajma Hall that he doesn’t think anything “nefarious” happened.
Jeff Flemming, spokesperson for the City of Milwaukee, said that votes are being re-counted at Milwaukee’s Central Count “out of an abundance of caution. “Roughly 31,000 ballots are being re-run to correct an error where 13 voting machines were not “fully sealed” due to human error, Flemming said. The development comes as Milwaukee County continues to count ballots, and residents continue heading to the polls. “It is going to extend the time that we will get the totals here,” said Flemming.
Jacobs, chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has continued to provide updates from Central Count in Milwaukee, from the website X, formerly known as Twitter. “Following up on this from Milwaukee,” Jacobs wrote on Twitter. “Before re-scanning, the tabulators are zeroed out – meaning they show no ballots in the tally. ALSO – and importantly – NOBODY knows how the originally scanned ballots were voted. No results were available or created.”Jacobs went onto post, “so like everyone else, we all must wait until tabulation (and re-tabulation) is complete early tomorrow to know Milwaukee’s vote totals! This is as it should be and is the correct process.”
Last updated: 6:48 pm
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On a national election protection update for reporters Tuesday afternoon, there were reports of long lines in several states and what turned out to be false bomb threats in Georgia.
In Wisconsin there have been long lines as well, said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, one of the call’s panelists, but except for a glitch at the Milwaukee Central Count requiring 30,000 ballots to be retabulated, “we have not seen anything out of the ordinary.”
Heck observed that nearly half of Wisconsin voters voted early this year, while about 1.7 million were expected to vote in person on Tuesday. Until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic increased the interest in absentee and early voting, Wisconsin voters have in the past “preferred to vote on election day.”
“The big issue, for most people, has been… long lines,” Heck said, with the heaviest traffic when polls opened at 7 a.m., over the lunch hour and more expected in the evening before the polls close at 8 p.m.
The longest lines have been reported on college campuses, particularly for same-day voter registration, Heck said.
One notable change has been “that there are many more partisan election observers, not only at polling places but in central count locations” where absentee ballots are sent to be counted. Milwaukee and Green Bay are among the Wisconsin communities using central count sites.
Heck said he had received reports of some 50 Republican observers at the Milwaukee central count site, along with 10 or 11 Democratic observers. There are also nonpartisan observers from organizations such as Common Cause.
Last updated: 6:06 pm
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“Our ward is basically all freshman dorms, so a lot of people registering, a ton of first-time voters, however, this is definitely the biggest volume of Election Day registrations in one morning that I have seen here,” said Izzie Behl, chief inspector officer at the polling location inside the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union. Behl has worked as an election official for the last three years. By 2 p.m. 522 people had voted at the location.
Eric Sanderson, a UW-Madison freshman from Virginia, was one of those first-time voters. He said he decided to vote in Wisconsin because he figured it would be easier than mailing in his ballot. He said he had to call and ask on Tuesday morning for information about voting, but it was a “pretty easy, streamlined” process. He said he voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats down the ballot because he thinks it will be better for the environment and women’s rights, and because of Trump’s age.“Trump’s really old,” Sanderson said. “I’d like a president that’s not at risk of, like, going senile during the presidential term.” He said the debate between Trump and Harris affirmed his decision. “A lot of that was just looking at which of them had their head in it more, and were not saying weird, f*cked up things,” Sanderson said.
Grace LeClaire, a freshman and Madison-native, voted early for Harris and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Friday but was at the polling location to observe the voting process with her anthropology class. LeClaire said she is pro-choice and supports reproductive rights.“This is my first presidential election and that’s the case for a lot of people in my class, so it’s really cool to see democracy in action,” LeClaire said.
Across the street from Memorial Union on Library Mall, UW-Madison College Democrats were standing in the rain encouraging students to vote. “I’m noticing a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement. Students have either voted early, which is great, or they have a plan to vote or we’re helping them get that plan to vote,” Chair Joseph Wendtland said. “We’re answering questions about… what kind of ID do I need? What kind of proof of residence?”
Wendtland said he is hearing a lot of enthusiasm for Harris in particular. For his part, he said he voted for Harris on the first day of early voting after a rally held by former President Barack Obama and vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Wendtland noted that others had come out to help on Tuesday including University of Chicago College Democrats, who were helping to knock doors, state Sen. Kelda Roys, who came to help put up their tents at 7 a.m., Wisconsin High School Democrats and Tennessee state lawmaker Justin Jones. “It’s really all hands on deck right now,” Wendtland said.
Last updated: 5:55 pm
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At UW-Whitewater’s on campus polling site, the line for students waiting to register to vote or update their address stretched to more than 4.5 hours at around 5 p.m. Orion Smith, who works with the university’s student government, told the Wisconsin Examiner the line had stretched for hours since about 9 a.m.
The line for student voters who didn’t need to update their registration was only about 20 minutes, Smith said. Outside of the University Center where voting was taking place, a group of Democratic students were encouraging their classmates to vote. Peter Johanneson, a 20-year-old junior, says it feels like students on campus are excited to vote for Democrats, including state Assembly candidate Brienne Brown — who Johanneson says made her presence felt on campus during the campaign. Audrey Hameister, also a 20-year-old junior, says she’s optimistic about the results for Democrats on Tuesday and that she believes a majority of student voters are supporting the Democratic ticket, especially since Vice President Kamala Harris became the party’s nominee.
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UW-Milwaukee students who reside in the university’s Sandburg Hall streamed into the UWM Lubar Entrepreneurship Center Tuesday afternoon to cast their ballots. Around 3 p.m., Poll Chief Kelly Conaty told Wisconsin Examiner that 812 ballots had already been cast. Conaty said that the polling site, which handles two separate voting wards, had seen no problems of any kind all day. Still, Conaty said that many students arriving to vote are needing to register before getting into the ballot line.
“We’re registering a lot of people,” said Conaty, adding that this is not uncommon for the college. As Conaty spoke to Wisconsin Examiner, a line of about 40 students lined up near the front door. Down the street, a modest tent of volunteers were also hard at work making sure students and adults alike know where they need to go.
Members of the non-profit group Super Market Legends said they noticed a trend of people arriving at locations that had been open for early voting, but are no longer active on Election Day. While they explained the situation to the Wisconsin Examiner, four students walked up at different times to the nearby Zelazo Center, which had been an early voting location. The volunteers at the tent made sure that the students knew where to go. So far this voting season, the volunteers said they have redirected hundreds of Milwaukeeans to the correct voting places after they’ve arrived at now closed early voting locations.
UW-Milwaukee students are directed to different polling sites according to their residential halls. Students at Sandburg Hall go to the UWM Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, which is across the street from the campus on Kenwood Blvd. Riverview Hall students go to the Gordon Park Pavilion on Humbold Blvd, while students in the Kenilworth Square Apartments go to the Charles Allis Art Museum on Prospect Avenue. students in the Cambridge Commons go to the Urban Ecology Center on East Park Place.
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The Kenosha Police Department is reporting minimal disruptions or calls for service to polling places so far on Election Day. A Kenosha PD spokesperson, Lt. Joshua Hecker, shared two summaries of police calls to polling places on Tuesday. At 7:01 a.m., police responded to the Senior Citizens Center for “a person playing music in a City owned parking lot.” The DJ was one of Wisconsin’s contingent from DJs at the Polls, which has over 100 members across Wisconsin. KPD’s summary describes the group as “a nationwide network of non-political DJ’s playing music to spice up election day.”
While the DJ’s actions were not overtly political, the department noted that the DJ was playing music over 100 feet from the main entrance. “City poll supervisors deemed the music to be a disturbance and due to the fact they were in a city lot, Officers asked them to shut it down and leave, which they did.”
The second call came in around 10:33 a.m. Officers responded to the Prayer Assembly House for “a man being disorderly over voter ID.” The report summary states that a middle-aged man was there with his 93-year-old mother, who did not have a current ID. When poll workers said that her ID was not valid, her son “became argumentative with poll staff and refused to leave.” The summary states that the man was also argumentative with officers, “and made bad faith arguments about police denying his elderly mother her rights and asked if we were proud of ourselves,” the summary states. The man wanted poll supervisors to answer his questions, which they hesitated to do because he was also allegedly recording them. Eventually when the poll workers said that a passport would be enough, the man went home, got a passport, and he and his 93-year-old mother were allowed to vote “after he threw it [the passport] at poll workers and cussed them out,” the summary stated. No arrests were made during this incident.
3 weeks ago
In Fort Atkinson, more than three dozen members of the Jefferson County Democratic Party — as well as a few joining from the neighboring Dodge and Walworth counties — packed into the small county party office to welcome U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers before kicking off some last minute canvassing.
Full of excitement at the prospect of electing Democrats Melissa Ratcliff and Joan Fitzgerald to its seats in the state Senate and Assembly (both in attendance at the event) after years of Republican representation under the old legislative maps, the Democrats from a rural county nearly mid-way between the urban centers of Madison and Milwaukee said they were expecting wins on Tuesday.
“I think our country has weathered the storm, and grown in the process,” Fort Atkinson Democrat Jim Marousis says. See more.
Last updated: 3:52 pm
3 weeks ago
VIDEO: Cindy Melendy – Election Officer at United methodist church in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin explains the ballot counting process and how the public can view it. She says that this election feels different because so many more people are coming out to vote and adds “it’s nice to feel part of process.”
3 weeks ago
Voters in Independence, Wisconsin — in the western part of the state encompassed by the 3rd Congressional District — are choosing between incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden and his Democratic challenger Rebecca Cooke.
Andrea Brandt voted for Cooke. She didn’t like Van Orden’s participation in Jan 6 pro-Trump rally protesting the 2020 election results in Washington, DC. “I don’t care for him,” she said.
Mary Bragger chose Van Orden. “It’s not one issue for me. I vote Republican because they tend to be more conservative and that is the way I lean.”
Last updated: 3:18 pm
3 weeks ago
Did you know that if you’re living unhoused in Wisconsin, you can still vote?
The Wisconsin Elections Commission provides a voter guide for people who don’t have stable housing, or are living on the street.
In Milwaukee County, hundreds of people live without housing on the street, in vehicles, and in county and city shelters.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission states that anyone 18 years or older, who is not otherwise disqualified from voting, may do so in Wisconsin. Unhoused residents may designate a fixed location for their residence to vote, as long as it’s an identifiable location in the state of Wisconsin which could “conceivably serve as a temporary residence,” a voter guide from the Elections Commission states.
If you’re living in a shelter, you can claim the shelter as your residence for voting purposes, unless that shelter has any restrictions against doing that.
Proof of residency can be achieved by showing a document such as a letter from a shelter, or from a private or public social service organization which provides services to unhoused residents. The document must identify the individual and describe the location where they are living. Make sure the letter or document is also signed by a person affiliated with a social service organization.
People who are living unhoused but want to vote may contact the Wisconsin Elections Commission help desk at 608-261-2028 or email elections@wi.gov with any questions.
Last updated: 3:18 pm
3 weeks ago
Like many Wisconsin voters, Reggie “Smooth Az Butta” Brown chose to vote early this year. “I had to get that early vote in,” the Milwaukee radio personality told Wisconsin Examiner. “Made me feel good, too.”
For nearly 30 years, Brown has been a household voice and name in Milwaukee, especially for Black and brown communities.
Earlier this year, Brown was laid off from iHeartMedia and V100 radio. On Tuesday morning, Brown set up his DJ station and table outside Washington High School, in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood. Starting at ince 6:30 a.m. he joined a group of 20 people serving as “DJs at the Polls,” a nationwide organization with 180 members in Wisconsin alone.
One of the other DJs, a friend of Brown’s, was stationed at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, which is actually closer to where Brown lives. Later today, Brown will head down to the suburban city of Greenfield to play music and lift spirits as people cast their ballots.
Brown said that although it seemed slow at Washington High School, voting had been proceeding steadily all morning. He needed to keep his comments non-partisan due to his affiliation with DJs at the Polls, he said, but Brown did speak to the issues on his mind when he voted.
“All the women’s issues,” said Brown. “I have sisters, I have a daughter, all those issues. Cheaper groceries, you know. I want somebody in there that’s going to do good for the nation,” Brown said. “We’re Americans, so let’s live it right. Let’s do it right.”
Last updated: 2:26 pm
3 weeks ago
In Sun Prairie, which traditionally sees incredibly high turnout in presidential elections, the polling place at city hall opened with a “steady stream” of voters all morning, according to chief inspector Greg Hovel.
Around 11:30, the lunchtime rush was just beginning and a team of seven poll workers used a second tabulator to process the 1,639 absentee ballots cast in the precinct. The team had already gotten about 1,000 of those ballots processed and tabulated.
Hovel said there had been no hiccups despite having five new poll workers to get up to speed with the early morning line waiting and that the poll has seen a number of new voter registrations.
Last updated: 2:07 pm
3 weeks ago
Voting was running smoothly for University of Wisconsin-Madison students at a polling location inside of Gordon Dining and Event Center on Tuesday morning. At 11:22 pm, about 622 voters had already cast their ballots.
College students could be influential in deciding whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump wins Wisconsin. The last two presidential elections were decided by less than 20,000 voters. Students the Examiner spoke with said the process was smooth and also brought up an array of issues that influenced their decision.
Sam Schwalbach, a freshman from Hudson in the western part of Wisconsin, said he voted for Trump. It’s his first time voting and he said his top issues were lowering taxes and “keeping the border safe.”
“We want to keep a lot of jobs here, and we can’t do that if we’re having people come over the border illegally. I think it just makes the country not as safe as well,” Schwalbach said. “Obviously immigration is a good thing, but it’s better when it’s like legal.”
Emily Blumberg, a junior from Illinois, and Adrianna Garcia, a junior from Minnesota, are friends that ran into each other at the polls. They said the process was smooth. “It was a very simple process. The school made it very easy,” Blumberg said. She added that it was easy to find the polling location and that some classes were canceled to allow students to make time to vote.
Blumberg and Garcia both said they voted for Harris in the presidential election, and decided to vote in Wisconsin because of what it means to vote in a swing state. “It holds more weight here, especially like Illinois has been a blue state,” Blumberg said. “Same with Minnesota,” Garcia added. “You know that to make that difference here means a lot,” Blumberg said.
“Anything but Trump,” Garcia said in discussing why she voted for Harris. “Growing up in the household that I did, we have very strong beliefs that morals are more important than policies that could benefit the economy in anyway.”
“This is an election where human rights issues should take precedence over like preferences with whatever economic policies, not that mine would even align with his,” Blumberg said. She said that women’s rights were also important for her and that she thinks its time for the U.S. to have its first female president.
Syed Rizvi, a freshman from New York, said he cast his vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. When President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, he said that he was initially excited because he thinks the U.S. “needs its first female president,” however he said Harris’ comments about pro-Palestinian protesters at rallies and other comments about the war in Gaza made him decide to vote third-party.
“My family has been a long-term Democratic family but I just feel like this election I wanted to vote for a candidate who represented my values, who has openly spoken against the genocide in Israel and Palestine,” Rizvi said. “I think Jill Stein is the only candidate that has openly and proudly spoken up for that, and so the moment Kamala Harris said that she would continue the weapons to Israel that is when she lost my vote.”
There are six third-party candidates on ballots in Wisconsin and Stein is seen as a potential spoiler for Harris.
Last updated: 3:23 pm
3 weeks ago
In Watertown in Jefferson county, the library polling place has seen “steady” voting all morning, according to chief inspectors Kate Latin and RoxAnne Witte. The line had gotten the longest during the morning rush when voters waited about 15-20 minutes, but as of Friday, about 45% of the town’s registered voters had already cast a ballot.That high early vote means a massive amount of absentee ballots for poll workers to process and tabulate today. Witte said she anticipates it will take a long time to finish.“I’m expecting early morning,” she says of when the returns from the largely Republican community of about 20,000 people should be reported to the county.
Last updated: 1:26 pm
3 weeks ago
The city police departments of Wauwatosa, West Allis, and Milwaukee are all reporting no issues so far this Election Day.
The updates, which came in just before 1 p.m., come as polling places report steady streams of voters. “We have not taken any reports of issues related to the election or poll sites today,” wrote Wauwatosa Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Abby Pavlik in an email statement to Wisconsin Examiner.
A spokesperson with the Milwaukee Police Department said they were “unaware of any major issues.”
Although many Milwaukee County residents voted early, others are still arriving at community centers, city halls, schools, libraries, and other polling sites to cast their ballots on Tuesday.
In the weeks leading up to the election, some Milwaukee-area communities experienced vandalism targeting Democratic candidate yard signs. Wauwatosa was one of them, with signs damaged across the city from the southeastern corner to the northwest.
Pavlik said that in recent days, no more reports of defaced yard signs were reported to Wauwatosa PD. “When these reports come into dispatch, we document the location and the damage to ensure a record is kept,” said Pavlik. “An officer is not automatically sent to every incident, we respond if the caller requests it.”
Last updated: 2:02 pm
3 weeks ago
Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys said nine election observers are allowed at a time at Central Count, with rotations every hour. Whether they are Republican, Democrat, or other — such as someone with another party, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) or the League of Women Voters — they can watch at Central Count with rotations every hour, she said.
The city said on Facebook that 234 absentee ballots have been counted as of 10:30 a.m. At a press conference at City Hall at about 10:30 a.m., Jeffreys said the ballots must be opened and processed before they are put into the machine. As of the end of day yesterday, there were 20,154 absentee ballots returned, the city said. Absentee ballots can be returned to the clerk’s office at City Hall before 8 p.m. today.
In a press release Monday, the clerk’s office said the city would begin processing absentee ballots this morning at 7:05 a.m.“Voters should be aware that, even as some states report early voting turnout, our state does not allow pre-Election Day processing of any ballots,” the clerk’s office stated.
At the press conference this morning, Jeffreys said about 3,200 voters have gone through the polls, according to the polls that have reported in — 70% of polling locations. “A very brisk start to our Election Day here,” Jeffreys said. A couple of issues have come up. Jeffreys said a tech was sent to address an issue at Ward 41; she hasn’t heard back since and thinks everything’s fine. In a separate issue, she said she thinks a voter received a test ballot, and she’s looking into it. “I’m not sure how a test ballot got to polls, but I will be investigating that after this press conference,” she said. On Monday, Wisconsin Examiner spoke to Jennifer Gonzalez, communications coordinator at the Green Bay Police Department, about the election. She said there are no known incidents that have required a police response at that time. The Examiner reached out to Gonzalez this afternoon to request an update and is awaiting her response.
Last updated: 4:02 pm
3 weeks ago
Polling places In Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs did not have long lines Tuesday morning, unlike recent presidential elections, and poll workers said many voters had already cast their ballots during Wisconsin’s early voting period ahead of Election Day.
At West Allis City Hall, the chief poll worker told Wisconsin Examiner that 15,500 West Allis residents voted early. In contrast, by 9 a.m. Tuesday, 314 people had cast their ballotsacross the four voting wards covered by the city hall polling location.
By 9:30 am, the city hall in Wauwatosa had seen 375 voters. Wauwatosa also had high numbers of early voters, with poll workers telling Wisconsin Examiner that just over 60% of all registered voters in Wauwatosa voted early this year.
Standing in the middle of the room as people voted in Wauwatosa, cross armed and quiet, a man wearing an election observer sticker watched everyone who entered and exited.
None of the poling sites Wisconsin Examiner visited in and around MIlwaukee had reported problems by late Tuesday morning, either from disruptions by citizens or with equipment failures.
In Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood, Washington High School had a steady stream of voters flowing in and out. Outside, poll workers helped an elderly woman and her two relatives register to vote at the curb, while they waited in the car, out of the on again, off again rainfall.
Both at Washington High School and the nearby Washington Park Library, poll workers loudly rejoiced each time someone came in to register as a first-time voter.
Two people who tried to register were turned away at the polling site because they did not have proof of their address. A handful of voters were directed to other polling sites since they’d arrived at the wrong location.
At Washington Park Library, the poll site’s chief told Wisconsin Examiner that he hadn’t seen so many people vote early at that location since the pandemic presidential election of 2020.
Outside the library, a Hunger Task Force mobile food pantry operated, void of any political signage, providing meals and groceries to local residents.
Just up the road at the Milwaukee Public Schools Administration Building, 457 people from two voting wards had cast ballots by 10:37 a.m. As at the other Milwaukee area sites, there had been no problems with long lines and no technical or safety concerns.
3 weeks ago
If the Democratic Party does well in Wisconsin Tuesday, Greg Speed thinks students’ votes and women’s votes will be a major contributor.
Speed is the president of America Votes, an independent expenditure operation that raises money and funnels it to progressive voter engagement groups. Born in the 2004 election, America Votes works with about 80 organizations nationwide; across the states it has hundreds of coalition partners, including 60 in Wisconsin alone.
The 2020 election was unusual because the continuing COVID-19 pandemic kicked up absentee voting overall, but University of Wisconsin-Madison students who might have normally voted in the city cast their ballots back home, whether elsewhere in Wisconsin or out-of-state.
But that’s not the only reason for this year’s higher early voter turnout among Madison students, who are among the voters that America Votes coalition partners targets.
“It is evidence of a lot of work on voter registration,” Speed said — and isn’t necessarily automatic, because the state allows registration at the polls on Election Day. If it was its own city, however, the UW campus is fourth in the state in new voter registrations. (Milwaukee and Madison are the top two.)
“The fact that so many have gone ahead and registered this year prior to election day is, in and of itself, pretty significant,” Speed said.
The 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending a federal abortion right remains at a top priority with the voters that canvassers in the coalition encounter.
“It’s electric — still,” said Speed. “It is the issue that in a conversation at the doors, you see a person light up when you mention abortion.”
He recalls door-to-door canvassing with environmental groups in 2022 and raising the issue of climate change “and they’d almost stop you and they’re like, ‘What about abortion rights?’”
Two years later reproductive rights have remained as potent as ever, he said. If Democrats win, “the Republican Party … they’re going to have to grapple with what they’ve [done] — hitching their wagon to Trump for as long as they have, but they’ve hitched their wagon to the anti choice movement for much longer. And it’s definitional.”
Speed predicts the issue won’t go away.
“It’s definitional like, and I think Democrats need to buckle up and double down. This is going to be the issue in ‘26 it’s going to be the issue in ‘28 that is not going away until Roe is restored.”
America Votes and its coalition partners don’t focus on traditional Republican voters, but Speed has been watching the Harris campaign’s courting of former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and other Republicans such as the mayors of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Mesa, Arizona. That’s “part of the path” to a Harris victory, he said.
Whether in Wisconsin, where Biden won by a little more than 20,000 votes four years ago, or Pennsylvania, where his margin of victory was about 80,000 votes, its not enough to rely on the core urban communities and students that make up so much of the Democratic base, he said.
‘”You’ve got to continue over-performing in Waukesha and Ozaukee [counties],” Speed said. “You’ve got to continue over-performing in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. That’s those Cheney events and other things. That’s who that was aimed at — those suburban, exurban areas.”
If Harris does better than the polls showing her neck-and-neck with Trump, “it’s definitely going to be [thanks to] a lot of crossover support in suburban, you know, suburban Milwaukee, suburban Philly.”
Last updated: 12:46 pm
3 weeks ago
Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke cast her ballot in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District and took time out to chat with the Examiner’s Frank Zufall about turnout and the state of her race against Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden. “There’s no community too small or too red,” Cooke said of her campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort.
Last updated: 11:09 am
3 weeks ago
In Waunakee, where former President Donald Trump held the Republican Party’s first campaign stop in decades in the deep blue Dane County in early October, the polling place at the local library had a line winding almost out the door at around 10:30 a.m.The poll’s chief inspector Bob Ohlsen says there have been no issues but the morning rush was incredibly busy with voters waiting about 30-40 minutes to vote.
The poll is where voters in half the city’s wards go to cast their ballot, with a large bank of four rows of voting carrels allow the process to move quickly.“People have been incredibly patient,” Ohlsen says. “It’s gonna take a while.”Two election observers representing the Democratic Party were watching voting take place, saying they’d be there all day.
Last updated: 10:49 am
3 weeks ago
At a downtown Madison polling place just blocks from the state Capitol, voters from the 45th and 51st wards wound their way through an apartment building to vote in the 5th floor community center down the hall from the building’s dog run. Chief Inspector Ben Lebovitz says the location had a very busy early morning rush — causing 15-30 minute lines — that ended around 8:30.
“A lot of voting this morning, it’s gone smoothly,” he says. This polling place used to be at the Madison Municipal Building but has since been moved. Lebovitz, who has worked the polls for years, says voters have gotten used to finding where to vote. Around 8:45 a.m. poll workers began to process the around 700 absentee ballots cast in the two wards and shortly before 9:30, Lebovitz went to cast his own ballot only for it to read as unscannable by the tabulating machine.
It’s a “teachable moment” he said to poll workers as he walked them through how to document and issue a replacement ballot. Two election observers were monitoring voting at the polling place, saying it had gone smoothly all morning. One, Jonathan Fisher, is a staff member for Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is a member of the House Committee on Administration, which is running an election observer program.
Last updated: 10:30 am
3 weeks ago
Spirit Lutheran Church voting site in Eau Claire was packed at 9 a.m. as voters cast ballots. Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke, who is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, is set to speak at Spirit Lutheran at 10 a.m. today.
Last updated: 9:30 am
3 weeks ago
At a news conference Monday morning, Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe reminded the public about the absentee ballot counting process and that it will likely take hours after polls close on Tuesday before unofficial results are available.
Local election officials can’t begin processing and counting ballots until the polls open. In most communities across the state, absentee ballots are handled at the polling place where voters who used absentee ballots would have cast their ballots in person. In those places, the ballots are opened, processed and counted when poll staff can find the time in between assisting people who are voting in person.
In about 30 communities across the state, including some of the largest cities, absentee ballots are processed at central count locations, at which all of the community’s absentee ballots are sent to one location to be counted.
In most communities where absentees are counted at the polls, those ballots are treated like that of an in-person voter. The voter’s name is announced and confirmed in the poll book before being fed into the voting machine to be tabulated. Those results then get reported after polls close along with all of the day’s in-person votes from that precinct.
At central count locations, the absentees are kept separate and all of that work to process, confirm with the poll book and feed the ballots into machines happens there.
The central count results then get reported all at once, separate from the precincts where those votes come from, once they’ve all been counted.
Republicans in the state Senate killed a bill proposed earlier this year that would have allowed ballots to be processed, but not counted, starting on the Monday before the election. The change was proposed in the wake of Republican conspiracy theories that ballots were “dumped” in the middle of the night in Milwaukee to swing the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.
Without that proposed change, absentee ballots — especially in Milwaukee — will likely take hours to count and may not be reported until the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“Election officials are always going to prioritize accuracy, integrity and transparency over speed, and just because you’re waiting until the early morning hours doesn’t mean that anything has gone wrong, this just means that election officials, again, are prioritizing accuracy over speed in order to ensure that every legitimate ballot gets counted,” Wolfe said at the news conference. “Processing absentee ballots takes time, especially since Wisconsin is one of just a few states where poll workers and clerks can’t even begin processing absentee ballots until the polls open on Election Day.
“You may see unofficial results coming in from the individual polling places, but those don’t include the absentee numbers for these jurisdictions, because all the absentees are counted in one central facility, and when all the absentees are done being counted, then the absentees are added to their individual polling place totals,” Wolfe added. “So it doesn’t mean anything is wrong if the unofficial totals that you’re watching online or on TV increase once the absentees are added, that’s to be expected.”
Last updated: 7:02 am
3 weeks ago
More than 1.5 million people have already cast their ballots. Voters set a state record for in-person absentee voting this year, with 949,157 early votes cast. Another 645,477 absentee ballots were requested, which trails the number of mail-in votes cast in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in absentee voting.
Last updated: 6:31 am
3 weeks ago
Both federal and state law provide protections against voter intimidation but recent years of widespread Republican activism alleging voter fraud and calling into question the integrity of elections have raised concerns about the issue on Election Day here in Wisconsin.
The Republican Party has promised to station thousands election observers at polling places across the country. At a handful of poll locations during the August election in Glendale, Wisconsin, where there was a Democratic primary in a special election for the 4th Senate District, local officials had to call the police after observers with a history of spreading election-related conspiracy theories became disruptive. The group left after law enforcement was called, but promised to be back in November.
Local election officials are responsible for maintaining security at polling places and have received guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission on how to handle observers and what to do if they get unruly.
Under Wisconsin law, it is a felony to “compel, induce, or prevail upon” a voter to vote or not vote a certain way. It is also illegal for employers to prevent employees from taking time off to vote or to distribute printed material that contains “threats intended to influence the political opinions or actions of the employees.”
Additionally, state law provides that no person can “by abduction, duress, or any fraudulent device or contrivance, impede or prevent the free exercise of the franchise at an election,” or “make use of or threaten to make use of force, violence, or restraint in order to induce or compel any person to vote or refrain from voting at an election.”
Most violations of Wisconsin’s voter intimidation laws are class I felonies, which carry the punishment of a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment for up to 3 years and 6 months, or both. Election officials convicted of voter intimidation are prohibited from acting as an election official for up to five years.
According to the Campaign Legal Center, common types of voter intimidation include:
Election observers in Wisconsin may challenge any vote, arguing that it has been cast illegally due to ineligibility of the voter.
“Either election officials or fellow voters can challenge the qualification of a voter, but challenges should have reasonable and appropriate support,” the Campaign Legal Center said in a Wisconsin-specific guide on voter intimidation. “A voter can be challenged based on age, residency, citizenship, ability to sign the poll list or other disqualification from voting. A challenge based on an individual’s appearance, speech or inability to speak English is unacceptable. A challenger who abuses the right to challenge can be subject to sanctions.”
However a challenge only disqualifies a vote if “the municipal clerk, board of election commissioners or a challenging elector . . . demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that the person does not qualify as an elector or is not properly registered.”
Making baseless or frivolous challenges may constitute violations of the state and federal laws against voter intimidation.
Election observers must sign in when they arrive at a polling place and poll workers have the ability to limit where they’re allowed to be. Observers are also barred from electioneering, taking photos or videos, seeing confidential voter information, having conversations about what’s on the ballot and making phone calls while in the polling place.
Poll workers can remove an election observer for being disruptive.
Last updated: 6:18 am
3 weeks ago
For people going to the polls on Tuesday, state law requires they bring a government-issued ID. The ID is required to prove a voter’s registration, not their residence, so if the registration is up-to-date, the address on the ID does not need to be current, Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said during a Monday a press conference.
Voters can register at the polls on Election Day, though they’ll need to prove their current residence.
“To register to vote at the polls, a voter will need to show a proof of residence document,” Wolfe said. “So this is something that has to contain your current name and your current residential address. So this could include something like a bank statement, a utility bill, or it could be a current invalid Wisconsin driver license or state ID card. If that ID card has your current name and address on it. Also remember that every single voter in the state of Wisconsin [who] head to the polls tomorrow has to bring an acceptable photo ID. This can include Wisconsin driver license, Wisconsin state ID card, a U.S. passport. It can also include a military or a veterans ID, a tribal ID, a certificate of naturalization and some student IDs.”
Polls close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Voters who are waiting in line at 8 should remain in line and they will be allowed to cast a ballot.
If a person still has an absentee ballot to return, it is too late to place it in the mail and have it arrive on time. Voters should now bring that ballot to their local clerk’s office, an absentee ballot drop box if they’re available in that community, their designated polling place, or to their community’s central count location.
Last updated: 6:03 am
3 weeks ago
After months of campaigning and numerous rally stops in Wisconsin from the two major party candidates, Election Day 2024 has arrived, with polls opening in the state at 7 a.m. Voters can find their polling place online at MyVote.WI.Gov.
On the ballot in the state are the two presidential candidates, the Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and the Republican, former President Donald Trump. Wisconsin voters will also vote for the race in the U.S. Senate between Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin and Republican banker Eric Hovde.
The state also has a few closely watched races for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives; a constitutional referendum on barring non-citizens from voting in the state and the balance of power is up for grabs in the state Legislature under the first elections with newly un-gerrymandered maps. Finally, in local elections across the state voters will decide on school referenda, property tax hikes and who will serve in important county government roles.
Last updated: 5:46 am
Voting carrels set up at Madison's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) approved communication to election clerks Friday to help prepare them for a potential recount of presidential election results in Wisconsin. Commissioners also approved guidance for clerks about how to handle prospective voters who present photo IDs marked as “Limited Term” and “NonDomiciled,” which could indicate they weren’t citizens when it was issued.
Wisconsin received petitions for a full or partial recount of the presidential elections in 2020 and 2016. In both years, the results in Wisconsin were decided by about 20,000 votes. Under state law, a recount is permitted if the margin is 1% or less between the top two vote-getters.
WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the materials were being considered to make sure that the commission can communicate to local election officials the timeline and process for a recount, “so everybody’s prepared and they can staff appropriately.”
“In 2020, the Commission considered making some changes after the election to clean up things … and that was met with a lot of resistance because people didn’t want the commission to be changing things once we already knew who the parties to a recount might be,” Wolfe said. “Today’s memorandum and the draft communication are really meant to make sure that everybody’s on the same page.”
Commissioners unanimously approved the communication, which includes information about recount deadlines, information needed to determine recount fees, minor revisions to the recount manual and about how commission staff plans to compile unofficial county results to track recount margins.
A recount must be requested within one business day of the elections commission receiving all the completed county canvasses. The deadline for a recount would be Nov. 30.
“We’ve presented a timeline that shows exactly when the various aspects of a recount would take place, so that again our local election officials and any potential parties to a recount would be able to prepare for that possibility and understand when that recount could potentially occur,” Wolfe said.
The communication will also include information to help clerks make preliminary estimates of the cost of a recount. Wolfe said election officials should plan ahead so that if a candidate is within the recall margin and asks for a recount, officials can produce a cost estimate quickly, which the candidate must pay for. In 2020, former President Donald Trump paid $3 million for recounts in Milwaukee and Dane Counties, which confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory.
“We don’t want to be thinking about it for the first time when there is some type of recount pending,” Wolfe said. “We want to think about it ahead of time and make sure that everybody’s prepared to provide that information in a very expedited way.”
Wisconsin has a decentralized election system with 1,850 Municipal clerks and 72 County clerks — a total of 1,922 local election officials. On election night, municipal clerks will report unofficial results to their county clerks. The Commission plans to go to each county’s website, see the unofficial results that have been posted, and enter the data in a spreadsheet for the federal contest and for any other state-level contest where the margin may be close and post it publicly.
“Usually we do this sort of behind the scenes because we have to know, is there a contest or candidate where we’re within the recount margin if they’re eligible,” Wolfe said, “but I think this is a more transparent way to do it, so that everybody knows where that data comes from and where to turn to to find whether or not a contest is eligible to request a recount.”
Clerks will receive communication about one substantive change to the recount guide: the removal of guidance that clerks can conduct administrative review of recount materials before the Board of Canvassers meets. The change was for transparency and statutory compliance purposes, according to the draft communication. Other changes were not substantive and added statutory citations, provided additional detail or clarity or reorganized information to resolve ambiguities.
The commission also approved guidance for clerks about IDs issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) with “limited term” and “NonDomiciled” labels, which are issued to temporary visitors. The DMV has been able to issue these types of ID since 2016.
Wolfe said during a press call that there have been some questions about noncitizens in voting, and that there’s been “a lot of really inaccurate information” on the issue. She emphasized that noncitizens are not allowed to vote in elections. Republicans have focused on the issue of noncitizen voting in recent years, and placed a referendum on ballots this November to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to change one word to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in any local, state or federal elections.
“We understand that some non-citizens that are in the country legally may have a photo ID issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles that shows the word ‘limited term’ or ‘non-domicile.’ It’s also important to understand that, in many circumstances, an individual who may have that type of ID could in fact be a U.S citizen, if they have since been naturalized after receiving that limited-term license,” Wolfe said during a press call ahead of the meeting. “This is why the guidance our commission is considering today emphasizes to poll workers that they would need to follow proper challenge procedures that would allow the voter to respond to any such allegations.”
The guidance explains that IDs marked “Limited Term” indicate that the ID holder is “a non-immigrant (Temporary Visitor) with legal status in the United States” and IDs marked “Non-Domiciled” indicate a commercial driver’s license holder is “a non-immigrant (Temporary Visitor) with legal status in the United States.” It says that, in accordance with statutes, the licenses must be accepted as a proper form of voter identification, but that possessing a valid identification does not necessarily mean the holder of the identification is eligible to vote.
The draft guidance states that if an election inspector notices that a photo ID contains an indication that the individual may not be eligible to vote, state law directs that the inspector examine whether the person’s qualifications to vote should be challenged. It also provides a script clerks can use.
“This is not a change in procedure or law,” Wolfe continued. “The challenge process has always been an avenue for election inspectors to ensure that only eligible voters can participate. For instance, if a poll worker were to see that based on someone’s photo ID, they’re only 16 years old, they would initiate the same challenge process to that voter’s eligibility.”
Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican, cast the only vote against the guidance.
Commissioner Mark Thomsen, a Democrat, said it’s unfortunate the issue came up.
“We used this law in 2016 when Donald Trump won, and we’ve used it in every election since that. This hasn’t been an issue,” Thomsen said. “I voted for years without even ever giving my poll worker an ID. We used to actually just trust each other and our neighbors to run the elections, and I really believe we have to get back there. I trust the people in my neighborhood to run the election, and we know we run clean elections in Wisconsin, and we should stop the talk about all this nonsense that we can’t trust our neighbors.”
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Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski speaks at a press conference defending ballot drop boxes and local election officials on Oct. 30, 2024 in Madison | Wisconsin Examiner photo
As the 2024 campaign air war reaches a furious crescendo over our battleground state, a few groups of public-spirited citizens have been quietly organizing on the ground to shore up the foundations of our democracy.
Take just three events that occurred during the week before Election Day:
All of these public declarations of confidence in the basic voting process we used to take for granted show just how far from normal we’ve drifted.
As Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan put it in a joint press conference with Republican former U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, “This is sort of no-brainer stuff.” Yet the two Wisconsin congressmen celebrated the announcement that they got 76 state politicians to sign their pledge to honor the results of the 2024 election.
Notably, however, the list of politicians who agreed to respect what Ribble described as “democracy 101” — that “the American people get to decide who leads them; candidates need to accept the results” — does not include many members of the party of Donald Trump.
Petition signers so far include 64 Democrats, one independent and nine Republicans. Worse, nearly every one of those Republicans has the word “former” next to his or her title.
Technically state Sen. Rob Cowles is still serving out the remainder of his term. But the legislative session is over and Cowles won’t be back. After announcing his retirement, he made waves this week when he renounced Trump and endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Other GOP officials who pledged to respect the election results include former state Sen. Kathy Bernier, who leads the group Keep Our Republic, which has been fighting election conspiracy theories and trying to rebuild trust in local election clerks, and former state Sen. Luther Olsen, a public school advocate who worked across the aisle back before the current era of intense political polarization.
On the same day Pocan and Ribble made their announcement, a different bipartisan group of Wisconsin leaders, members of the Democracy Defense Project – Wisconsin state board, held a press call to emphasize the protections in place to keep the state’s elections safe and to call out “bad actors” who might try to undermine the results.
Former Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and former Republican Attorney General JB Van Hollen joined the call along with former Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Klug and former state Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate.
“I can speak from personal experience, having won and lost very close elections, that the process here in Wisconsin is safe and secure, and that’s exactly why you have this bipartisan group together,” said Barnes, who narrowly lost his challenge to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022.
Barnes said false claims undermining confidence in voting and tabulating election results “have been manufactured by sore losers.”
If you lose an election, he added, “you have the option to run again at some point. But what you should not do is question the integrity or try to impugn our election administrators just because the people have said no to you.”
Former AG Van Hollen, a conservative Republican, seconded that emotion. “I’m here to tell you as the former chief law enforcement officer for the state of Wisconsin that our system does work,” he said.
Van Hollen reminded people that he pushed for Wisconsin’s strict voter I.D. law, which Democrats opposed as a voter-suppression measure. “Whether you were for it or against it, the bottom line is that it is in place right now. If people pretended to be somebody else when they came in and voted in the past, they cannot do that any longer,” Van Hollen said.
For voters of every stripe, he added, “Get out and vote. Your vote will count. Our system works and we have to trust in the result of that system.”
Former Republican Congressman Klug underscored that Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 “and it had nothing to do with election fraud. It just had to do with folks who decided to vote in a different direction.”
He also praised local election workers and volunteers, like those who take his ballot at his Lutheran church, and “who make Wisconsin’s election system one of the best in the country.”
Tate, the former Democratic Party chair, warned that the unusually high volume of early voting and a state law that forbids clerks from counting ballots until polls close on election night will likely mean delays in results coming in. “There are good reasons for that,” he said, “because our good election workers are exercising extreme due diligence.”
In a separate press conference outside City Hall in Madison, members of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Secretary of State Godlewski also chimed in to defend Wisconsin’s hard-working election clerks and combat conspiracy theories.
Nick Ramos, the Democracy Campaign’s executive director, connected recent news stories about drop-box arson in other states to the hijacking of a local dropbox by the mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin, who physically removed his town’s ballot drop box and locked it in his office. The mayor was forced to return the box and is now the subject of a criminal investigation. It’s important to hold people accountable who try to interfere with voting, Ramos said, because otherwise “people will try to imitate those types of bad behaviors.”
Besides sticking up for beleaguered election officials, the pro-drop-box press conference featured testimony from Martha Siravo, a founder of Madtown Mommas and Disability Advocates. Siravo, who uses a wheelchair, explained that having a drop box makes it much easier for her to vote.
Godlewski described conversations with other voters around the state — a busy working mom, an elderly woman who has to ask her kids for rides when she needs to go out, and a young man who works the night shift — all of whom were able to vote by dropping their absentee ballots in a secure drop box, but who might not have made it to the polls during regular voting hours. “These stories are real and that’s why drop boxes matter,” Godlewski said. Restoring drop boxes is part of “helping ensure Wisconsin remains a state where every vote matters.”
That’s the spirit we need going into this fraught election, and for whatever comes after.
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Sen. Robert Cowles (via legislative Facebook)
Republican State Sen. Rob Cowles announced on Thursday that he will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, saying Trump “has to be defeated.”
Cowles has represented parts of the Green Bay area for over 40 years in the state Legislature, starting with a stint in the Assembly from 1982 through 1986 before winning a special election for the state Senate in 1987. He decided to retire at the end of his current four-year term this year rather than run for reelection.
In an interview on the Civic Media show “Rational Revolution,” Cowles said about publicly announcing his decision that he “probably should’ve done this sooner,” but he was concerned about “blowback and public safety.”
“I’m going to be ready for that. I really think this is one of the most important things I’ve done and hopefully people will accept that and listen to me…,” Cowles said. “We have to make a change here and Trump has to be defeated and we have to protect the Constitution and the country will go on, even with some liberal things that Harris might do.”
Cowles said the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, there is no evidence it was stolen and Trump’s continued claims otherwise were a “check” against him. He said he believes Trump is a “totalitarian” and “very much a fascist.”
Cowles’ endorsement comes as Harris has been publicly trying to gain the support of Republicans and independents. She has campaigned with former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney in Wisconsin, saying people need to put “country over party.”
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Tony Wied yard signs in Green Bay. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
The race for Wisconsin’s open 8th Congressional District seat pits Democrat Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN, against Republican Tony Wied, a former gas station owner, and is testing the power of reproductive rights versus the influence of former President Donald Trump.
The 8th CD House seat is open this year after Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who was first elected to the seat in 2016 and easily held it throughout his tenure, resigned from Congress in April. Voters on Election Day will see the candidates on ballots twice. A special election was called to happen concurrently with the general election to fill out the rest of the two-year term left open by Gallagher’s departure.
The district sits in the northeast part of the state encompassing the city of Green Bay and the rest of surrounding Brown County as well as Marinette, Oconto, Menonominee, Shawano, Waupaca, Outagamie, Calumet counties and part of Winnebago County.
Aaron Weinschenk, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, noted that most analyses of the makeup of the district indicate it leans solidly Republican. The last time a Democrat represented the district was from 2006 through 2010, when Democratic Rep. Steve Kagan held the seat.
“I think that because Democrats have won the seat some people see it as a possibility for Democrats, although I would be pretty surprised if the Democrats win it during this election cycle,” Weinschenk told the Examiner in an email.
Lyerly has brought reproductive rights to the center of the race, while Wied seeks to focus more on the economy and immigration
Weinschenk said the issues each candidate is focusing on make sense given that each is talking about subjects where the parties and their respective presidential candidates are perceived as having an advantage. According to September polling from Pew Research Center, Trump holds a 7-point advantage over Harris when it comes to immigration policy. Harris held an 11-point advantage on abortion policy.
“We live in an era where politics is highly nationalized (the correlation between vote share in House elections and presidential elections is incredibly high right now — higher than ever before),” Weinschenk wrote. “National forces seem to matter in lots of different down-ballot races these days (even state supreme court elections).”
Even before launching her campaign for Congress, it was no secret Lyerly, an OB-GYN from De Pere, was passionate about reproductive health care.
After the U.S. Supreme Court returned abortion policymaking to individual states with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022, Lyerly moved her practice to Minnesota. She also joined a court case challenging the 1849 state law that ceased abortion services across Wisconsin for more than a year.
Democrats are hopeful that Lyerly’s background and dedication to the issue can help flip the district.
Chair of the Brown County Democratic Party Christy Welch said there is reason to believe the district will flip. Welch is also running in a competitive state legislative race against Republican Benjamin Franklin.
“It’s an open seat with a very strong candidate, who is an expert in an issue that is motivating a lot of voters right now in what’s sure to be a high turnout election. A lot of people are not happy with Republicans in general,” Welch said. “All that together could mean a flip.”
Lyerly said in a September interview with the Examiner that reproductive health is top of mind for voters this year, including in the district with a large Catholic population.
“As a doctor who has worked with people in this region, Catholics receive abortion care and use contraception at the same rate as everyone else. They just talk about it differently. You’re knocking on doors, and when you open that door and create that space to share that personal story, that’s when you really understand how much it means to people. I think it’s difficult on a macro level to understand the depth of importance that this issue has in this region. But when you’re actually talking with the people, not just young women — dads, young men, old men, old women… people understand,” Lyerly said. “The one fundamental thing that everybody wants is freedom, it all comes back to freedom.”
A recent poll conducted by University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation found that the majority of Wisconsinites oppose criminalizing abortion. According to the survey, 78% of Wisconsinites — including 57% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats — do not want abortion to be criminalized before fetal viability.
Lyerly spoke about a 70-year-old farm wife in Shawano who gave her a note describing her dislike for abortion and her desire to have eight children. But she was only able to have three due to health complications.
“She understood that pregnancy is hard. Reproductive health is hard and you can’t take abortion out of health care,” Lyerly said. “What we can do is we can educate, we can support. We can make sure people have access to health care.”
If she won the seat, Lyerly said she would “love” to work with Sen. Tammy Baldwin to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would create a federal protection for abortion similar to the one established under Roe v. Wade.
During an October debate, Wied avoided staking out a position on what Wisconsin abortion policy should be, and Lyerly seized the moment to highlight the answer as a “cop out.” Wied said he supports the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the decision about whether abortion should be restricted should remain up to individual states.
“We all know the person who pulls Tony Wied’s strings is proud of taking Roe v. Wade down,” Lyerly said, referring to Trump. The former president has bragged about the role he played in helping overturn Roe v. Wade, yet he has also been stepping back from some of that rhetoric as he tries to win over voters. Trump recently said that some state bans are “too tough.”
Asked to clarify, Wied refused to say what he thinks Wisconsin’s law should be. He also said Lyerly should run for the state Assembly if she wants to work on the issue.
“I’m running for the United States House of Representatives. Our job is to present spending bills and oversee the agencies at the federal level. I am not for continuing to add more power to the federal government… This is a state issue. It will continue to be a state issue,” Wied said.
Chair of the Door County Republican Party Stephanie Soucek said she doubts the issue will be enough to “move the needle” in the district this year, though she said that Democrats’ messaging about Wied’s views on the issue have included “hyperbolic, unfair accusations.” For example, she said the claims that Republicans are going to ban fertility treatments and contraception aren’t where most Republicans are.
“There are some people out there that are very single-issue voters,” Soucek said. “I think there’s enough stuff going on that is affecting people’s lives every day, so they’re seeing things and experiencing things that I think will override… the abortion issue. It’s just a matter of getting the message out there, and pushing back against some of those claims.”
From meeting the Republican former president at an April rally in Green Bay to propose his candidacy to clinching a public endorsement to coincide with his decision to run, to leaning heavily on being the only “Trump-endorsed” candidate in the primary, Wied has made former President Donald Trump central to his campaign.
Wied won a three-way primary in August against a current and a former state lawmaker to secure the Republican nomination. Wied’s campaign did not respond to an interview request from the Examiner.
Trump’s influence on Wied’s campaign has been prominent as the political newcomer has focused on the economy and immigration as two of his top priorities throughout his campaign.
While Lyerly has focused heavily on reproductive health issues, Wied has highlighted the U.S.-Mexico border. He has said that immigration policy was better under Trump, and that he would support finishing Trump’s border wall. He said he also supports reimplementing the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date
“I believe in legal immigration, but right now we have to close this border,” Wied said during the debate. “This administration, right now… is a tragedy.”
When it comes to the economy, Wied has said that he supports lowering taxes, including for businesses and wants to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which Democrats have complained unfairly benefited the rich. He has also said that government spending has led to inflation and he wants to work to decrease it.
“Inflation is really a tax and it’s a tax that affects the poor and the middle class,” Wied said.
When it comes to the congressional race, Soucek said Wied has been doing a good job articulating the Republican message on those two issues.
The county party, Soucek said, has been working to deliver a win for the Republican candidates up and down the ballot, including Wied and Trump, by knocking doors and making phone calls. She said that she thinks Wied has been focusing a little less on his Trump endorsement in the general election campaign.
“I think he felt it was going to be helpful to him in the primary. He definitely supports President Trump, but I think that was a strategy he felt would be beneficial to him… Obviously it seemed to work. Now, I think his approach has been, ‘We’re going to talk about all these issues that are impacting everyday Wisconsinites,’ and really, you know, broaden his message more,” Soucek said.
When it comes to the presidential election, she said that she also recognizes the responsibility that comes with Door County serving as a “bellwether” in the presidential election. The county has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1996.
“There’s just two very different paths and different views on America and where we should be going, and so for Republicans there are many different issues that we feel like if we don’t win …. it’s going to be hard to reverse… Look at illegal immigration and just over 10 million people and maybe more that have come across the border,” Soucek said.
Soucek said she is feeling “pretty good” about Wied keeping the seat in Republican hands. She noted that Republican candidates down ballot tend to outperform the top of the ticket, including when Gallagher won in the district.
“I’m not going to take anything for granted. We don’t want to assume anything, so we’re going to all continue to work hard for all of our candidates, but in our area, I do feel fairly confident that we’ll be able to get him across the finish line,” Soucek said.
Lyerly, however, is banking that Wied’s alignment with Trump won’t connect with voters in the district.
“My opponent is an extremist. He is not someone who is independent, and in fact, if you look at his yard signs, they don’t even lead with his name,” Lyerly told the Examiner. Some of Wied’s yard signs feature his Trump endorsement above his name. “That is not what the people of this region want. They want a moderate.”
In recent weeks, Lyerly has sought to emphasize that she is an “independent thinker.”
In a recent campaign ad, Lyerly led with her support for reproductive health care access and Wied’s openness to allowing states to decide to implement bans, and then said she would also work to “secure our border,” ban price gouging and protect Second Amendment rights.
Lyerly has said the bipartisan border security bill, which failed to advance out of the Senate after Trump urged Republicans to kill it, would have started to solve some of the problems with immigration as it would have funded 1,500 new personnel in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and created a more efficient path to citizenship for some. She has said she would work in Congress to help stop fentanyl from coming into the country. During the debate, Wied said the bipartisan immigration bill “didn’t go far enough.”
When it comes to addressing the economy, Lyerly has said she supports expanding the child tax credit, lowering taxes on the middle class and raising taxes for more wealthy Americans.
“It’s easy to pigeonhole me, as an OB-GYN doctor, as someone who only cares about reproductive rights, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Lyerly said.
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Lawrence University student Megan Eisenstein (left) speaking at a reproductive rights roundtable in Appleton last week as Emily Tseffos (right), a Democratic Assembly candidate and chair of the Outagamie County Democratic party chair, listens. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
FOX VALLEY — Democrat Emily Tseffos was stood up by her incumbent opponent Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Greenville), who is seeking his sixth term in the state Assembly, twice before she launched her campaign for Wisconsin’s 56th Assembly District.
The first time, Tesffos, a mother of three, said she got a babysitter and sat waiting at a restaurant in the district but he never showed up. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, she said she scheduled a second meeting. Then, it happened again.
“I was like, we pay your salary, sir, and you are supposed to be listening to people, even if it’s not aligned with what you believe to be true,” Tseffos, who also serves as chair of the Outagamie County Democratic Party, said. She said she later spoke with Murphy after visiting his office in the Wisconsin State Capitol (She was already there for a meeting about Child Care Counts). “I threw my hat in the ring shortly after that. We deserve better and I’m trying to run a campaign that reminds people that we deserve better.”
Outagamie County alongside Brown and Winnebago Counties make up Wisconsin’s ‘BOW’ counties — a growing population center in the Fox Valley that includes the cities of Green Bay and Appleton.
The battleground region could play a role in determining control of Wisconsin’s state Legislature as several newly competitive seats are up for grabs under recently adopted maps. Fox Valley voters could also determine the results of competitive federal races, including the presidential election. (The counties were identified by Politico as helping President Joe Biden win in 2020.)
The region has been trending less red in recent elections, and Democrats are hoping to accelerate that trend this election year up and down the ballot.
“This is a super purple county, so the fact that we’re in the battleground state of the moment but then in a county that, for the first time in 15 years, went blue for [Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet] Protasiewicz — like, that’s huge to us,” Tseffos said. “So we recognize the responsibility of making sure we’re getting every single progressive and Democrat and independent that aligns with the Democratic ideals to turn out in November.”
Former President Donald Trump won Outagamie County in 2020 with 53.8% of the vote. Biden had 43.9%, representing an improvement for the Democratic candidate when compared to 2016. During the 2022 midterms, unsuccessful Republican candidate Tim Michels carried the county with almost 53% of the vote, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers received almost 46%.
The following spring the county swung in favor of liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose campaign focused heavily on restoring abortion rights, with 51.5% voting for her over conservative former Justice Dan Kelly.
The 56th Assembly District, which includes part of Outagamie County and Waupaca County, is not one of Democrats’ top target seats to flip, and CN Analysis rates the district as “Solid R”. Still, Tseffos has been knocking doors there every day.
On Friday last week, Tseffos drove 30 minutes outside of Appleton to Lebanon, Wis., a small town in Waupaca County, to knock on people’s doors in a rural part of the district.
“Just talking politics with strangers,” Tseffos would say when someone had a look of confusion by her presence. Sometimes she would joke about how that’s what everyone wants to do on a Friday. It was her way of easing into conversations with people at their front doors, in their yards and as they walked their dogs.
After breaking the ice, Tseffos asked people about the issues that matter the most to them and tried to find common ground. She listened to their concerns, then made her case for why they should vote for her — and other Democrats — next month.
Tim, an older white man who was in his garage when Tseffos walked up his driveway, said divided politics was a big concern for him, and that he was planning to vote a straight Democratic ticket.
“I’m tired of the Republicans,” he told Tseffos. By the end of the conversation, he agreed to let Tseffos put one of her yard signs in his front yard, but declined a Harris-Walz sign. He said his neighbor is a Republican and he wanted to keep things civil.
Tseffos heard about concerns about the state of roads from multiple people, and she told them she could be the “squeaky wheel” that would help get those projects done. A Trump voter spoke to her about his concerns about immigration, and how he thought the border was more secure during Trump’s presidency. She tried to steer the conversation towards state-level issues, including education, to see if she could get him to split his ticket.
A couple of people said they didn’t have any concerns or weren’t planning on voting in which case Tseffos gave them her spiel and tried to convince them that they should vote. She told these voters about her support for increasing public education funding, including special education funding, improving birth control affordability and accessibility and that she generally wants to work on bringing people together.
At the last door, Tseffos spoke to an older couple, Dale and Janice, who said they were Christians and don’t believe in abortion except for in extreme cases.
“We don’t like abortion,” Janice said at one point in the conversation. “There have been millions of babies tossed aside.”
Tseffos told the couple that she was a “fellow Christian,” who wouldn’t entertain abortion for herself, and as a mother, she knows “how precious life is.” However, as a victim of sexual violence, she said she also knows how terrible the world can be. She emphasized that bans could have an outsized impact on women late in pregnancy, who “desperately” want to have a baby, but are dealing with severe complications.
“That’s the problem with bans for me,” Tseffos said to the couple, adding that heartbeat bills are also problematic for her.
In the rest of the conversation, they touched on the cost of child care, school and the need for the inclusion of rural voices in government. Tseffos said, reflecting on the conversation, that she felt like she made progress because she was able to explain her thinking to them.
Vice President Kamala Harris came to Ripon, Wisconsin, which sits just south of Winnebago County, last week to hold a rally with Liz Cheney, who made a pitch to Republican voters who don’t like Trump that they should support Harris. Chair of the Winnebago County Democratic Party Marcia Steele told the Examiner during the rally that enthusiasm for Harris has been unbelievable. Steele has served as party chair on and off for about 20 years.
“If it comes down to Wisconsin, more than likely would come down to Winnebago County, Brown County and Outagamie County… so we are very fortunate that we’re starting to get more enthusiasm in our area,” Steele said.
Steele said that the enthusiasm is helping, especially as Democrats seek to flip seats by running candidates in newly created districts in the state legislative races. A lot of volunteers are showing up to knock doors and make phone calls, she said.
“We’ve had… people that have never done it before. It’s just unbelievable — unbelievable. And the older people that have been doing it for a long time, recognize it and just keep saying, yes, sign me up for another shift,” Steele said. “In the Fox Valley, we’ve got the new 18th Senate District, which we can make it blue, which would be great, and then we’ve got the new 53rd [Assembly District], which we could make that blue, so it’ll be huge for the Legislature going in to have more people than it just all being a gerrymandered state.”
The 18th Senate District is made up of Appleton in Outagamie County and Menasha, Neenah and Oshkosh in Winnebago County. Kris Alfheim, a member of the Appleton Common Council, is running for the 18th Senate District against Republican Anthony Phillips, a cancer physician who wants to keep the district red.
The 53rd Assembly District encompasses Neenah, Menasha and part of Appleton. Democrat Duane Shukoski, a Neenah retiree, faces Republican Dean Kaufert, the former Neenah mayor and a former Assembly member.
The two races are some of Democrats’ top targets as they battle to gain more seats in the state Legislature. Republicans currently hold a 64-seat majority in the 99-seat Assembly and a 22-seat supermajority in the 33-seat Senate.
“If we can flip the Assembly or at least be close this year,… and get us closer to the Senate [majority] in 2026, we can be the forward Wisconsin it was when I moved here in ‘89,” Steele, who is originally from Michigan, said.
Reproductive health issues are one of the issues that Democrats in the area are hoping will bring voters out to the polls. Tseffos was surprised to see the large margin that Protasiewicz won by in Outagamie County in April 2023.
“Fair maps and reproductive health… that’s what they kept beating down,” Tseffos said. “It made us realize locally — continue to talk about reproductive health and what that means to people and what the realities are for folks.”
After her daily door knocking last week, Tseffos joined Alfheim and Shukoski at a roundtable event in Appleton to talk about reproductive health issues.
Lawrence University student Megan Eisenstein, who attended the event, explained that when Roe v. Wade was overturned, it changed the way she felt about going to school in Wisconsin. She’s from Illinois.
“I felt pretty safe there to make any choices that I needed to reproductive health-wise, but I knew that I was going to a state where I wasn’t able to make those choices after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and so I started to really dread going to college as a whole,” Eisenstein said.
Eisenstein, who is social chair for her campus’s college Democrats group and also interns with the state party, told the Examiner that she became politically active in 2022 after starting school.
“I didn’t really see politics as being something where you could actually make a difference,” Eisenstein said. “Coming here to Wisconsin, where every single voice matters, every door you knock matters, it really inspired me to get a little more involved.”
This will be her first time voting in a presidential election, and she has also been helping knock doors for Alfheim and other candidates. She said the issue is a good “rallying cry” for people.
“It serves as the foundation for a lot of liberal values, and so it becomes about more than just reproductive freedom, and it also becomes about freedom for other things, and also for caring for people who might not be like you,” Eisenstein said.
“Coming here to Wisconsin, where every single voice matters, every door you knock matters, it really inspired me to get a little more involved.”
– Megan Eisenstein, a Lawrence student
Democratic candidates in the district emphasized their support for access to abortion, birth control, infertility treatments and control of their health decisions.
“Democrats get it — people don’t want politicians in Madison or anywhere else making their personal health decisions for them,” Alfheim said. She said she would work towards restoring women’s access to reproductive health care if elected.
During the roundtable in Appleton, Alfheim sought to differentiate her position from her opponent Phillips. She commented on Trump’s running mate JD Vance, that some Republican candidates’ public and private comments on reproductive health differ, and she sees this with her opponent, whom she described as “anti-choice.”
The Phillips campaign declined an interview request from the Wisconsin Examiner. On his campaign website, Phillips lists “Advocating for a culture of Life to protect the lives of the unborn” as one of the issues that matter to him. He previously told the Examiner that he would support a referendum on the issue, and believes people would favor some level of restrictions.
“You don’t get to take away what you say in private amongst your peers and then make me think it’s OK out here,” Alfheim said. “That’s an Integrity issue. We should be whoever we are. Own how you feel and be strong enough to say it out loud every time… We have seen it with everyone. They are clearly stating they are against it and then they are slowly backing away.”
Brown County — home to the Green Bay Packers — is the last of the three competitive counties in the region where Democrats are aiming to improve their margins.
In 2016, Trump won the county with 52% of the vote, while Hillary Clinton only garnered 41%. Trump won the county, again, in 2020 with 52.7% of the vote. Biden got 45.5%, representing an improvement for Democrats compared to 2016.
During the 2022 midterms, unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels carried the county with 51% of the vote, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers received 47%. The following spring the county swung in favor of liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose campaign focused heavily on abortion, with 51.5% voting for her over conservative former Justice Kelly.
“We joke a lot in the office, ‘Welcome to the political epicenter of the country,’” Christy Welch, who chairs the county Democratic Party and is running for the state Assembly, said. “It is pretty wild… [it’s] the largest swing county in this critical state and this battle between the potential end of democracy or just being able to keep building on everything Biden-Harris got going.”
We joke a lot in the office, ‘Welcome to the political epicenter of the country,'
– Christy Welch, who chairs the Brown County Democratic Party and is running for the state Assembly
The region has had several visits from the Harris-Walz campaign. Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz plans to campaign in Green Bay next week, according to a media advisory issued Thursday. Other surrogates including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and First Lady Jill Biden have also campaigned in the area.
Welch said population growth contributes to the changing political cast of the city but that there are also a lot of people who are opposed to the direction the Republican party has taken.
“I’m knocking a lot of doors and I have run into so many people that tell me that they used to vote Republican but they just don’t want anything to do with the Republican party, the way it’s operating today, and so they’re voting for Democrats,” Welch said. “The divisiveness and not focusing on actual policies and solutions, just always looking backward and blaming. They don’t want to have anything to do with that.”
Welch is also running in a competitive race against Republican Benjamin Franklin, a De Pere business owner, for the 88th Assembly District, which includes Bellevue, Allouez and De Pere.
In the Legislature, Welch said she has been speaking with voters about the cost of groceries, housing, health care and child care. Her priorities for the Legislature overlap with these issues. She said she wants to increase public education funding and continue funding for the state’s Child Care Counts program. She said she also wants Wisconsin to take the federal Medicaid expansion and to repeal the state’s 1849 law, which caused all abortions to cease in the state for more than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Through door knocking, Welch said that she has been able to let some voters know about the new legislative maps.
“Not everyone pays as close attention and some people just didn’t realize… It is nice to let people know, who consider themselves Democrats and are not totally in the loop on the maps, what that means. We’re definitely going to pick up more seats. Hopefully, we’re going to get the majority. That gives them some hope too,” Welch said.
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Democratic candidate Sarah Keyeski, a mental health professional from Lodi, answering questions at a forum hosted by Main Street Alliance, the Wisconsin Farmers Union and Wisconsin Early Education. Her opponent, Sen. Joan Ballweg didn’t attend. Organizers set up a vacant chair in the Yahara River Learning Center classroom next to Keyeski. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
Christy Updike, a farmer and full-time health care professional from Plain, Wisconsin, said she’s been avoiding the television and news this election cycle — she doesn’t necessarily trust the information being shared this way. She said she’d rather hear from candidates directly.
One of Updike’s top concerns is bringing more resources to rural communities, especially mental health support.
Updike also works with the Farmer Angel Network, an organization dedicated to suicide prevention and mental health for rural communities in Wisconsin. She said that she is open to hearing from candidates across the political spectrum.
“I am not straight down ever. I look at individual people and if they happen to be a politician already, I look at their history,” Updike said.
With Wisconsin’s new, more competitive legislative maps changing the dynamics of state-level races this year, rural voters like Updike will play a decisive role in shaping the state Legislature. Democrats, seeking to pick up additional seats in the state Assembly and Senate, are looking to win them over in November by meeting voters where they are.
Wisconsin’s 14th Senate District sits north of Madison, covering parts of Dane, Columbia, Sauk and Richland counties, including the cities of Deforest, Reedsburg, Baraboo, Lodi, Columbus, Portage, Richland Center and Wisconsin Dells. It is one of Democrats’ top targets this year as they look to lay the groundwork for flipping the state Senate in future election cycles.
Democrat Sarah Keyeski, a political newcomer, and Republican Sen. Joan Ballweg, who is seeking her second term in the Senate, are vying for the seat. Updike attended a candidate forum last week focused on rural and small business issues hoping to hear from both candidates.
Ballweg didn’t attend the forum, however, which was hosted by Main Street Alliance, the Wisconsin Farmers Union and Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. Organizers set up a vacant chair in the Yahara River Learning Center classroom next to Keyeski.
Keyeski, a mental health professional from Lodi, told attendees her work has mostly focused on helping people when they were “drowning.” In the state Legislature, she would want to go “upstream” to “keep people from falling in.” She expressed support for increasing the minimum wage, making health care more accessible by expanding Badgercare and for increasing funding for public schools. She also emphasized her rural roots — she grew up on a small dairy farm in Cashton.
While Updike said it’s not a done deal, she left the forum leaning toward voting for the Democrat in November.
“The Republicans aren’t at the table discussing the things that are important to me,” Updike said.
To succeed in rural parts of the state, “what it boils down to is that we have to engage with people in rural communities, and we have to listen to them,” said Wayde Lawler, chair of the Vernon County Democratic Party.
Lawler described the county, which is in the Driftless region in western Wisconsin, as a “swing county in a swing region in a swing state.” He said the county, which continues to have a strong family farm presence, is no different than the rest of rural America in that it has been trending red for the last decade.
The county voted for Gov. Tony Evers in 2022, and liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023. But the county also voted in 2022 for Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson over Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden over Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff. In the state Legislature, the county is currently represented by Pfaff in the Senate, but hasn’t been represented by a Democrat in the state Assembly in decades.
Lawler said he believes there is an “underlying truth” to the idea that the Democratic Party has become more of a party of urban centers, of college educated folks, of suburban areas, and has, to some extent, stopped paying attention to rural and working class voters. He said the dynamic can change, but it takes a commitment of time and resources.
“Political campaign operations are always a question of how best to use a set amount of resources, and what that translates to generally is people focusing on denser, more urban areas, and even out here in a rural county, you know, that looks like door knocking in Viroqua or Westby or some of the villages, rather than going out into the rural areas,” Lawler said.
As a result, he said many rural voters are only exposed to candidates via ads and social media.
“That is not a great way to learn about a candidate. It’s not in depth. It’s not nuanced. It’s not real. It’s a caricature based on what opponents want to say or what that candidate wants to say,” Lawler said. “If you make that commitment to go talk to people most of the time, you can find some common ground, and that’s another thing we’re focusing on.”
Under the new maps, Vernon County is included in Assembly District 96, which also covers part of La Crosse and leans Democratic. The race also represents a test of Democrats’ commitment to reaching some of those rural communities.
Rep. Loren Oldenburg (R-Viroqua), who was first elected to the Assembly in 2018, faces Democrat Tara Johnson, a former La Crosse County Board member.
Lawler said a win in the district is not a given, and Democrats are focusing on making the commitment to go down the “gravel roads” and talk to voters.
“We have had decades and decades of various kinds of maps and not had a Democrat in the State Assembly,” Lawler said. “This time around I think many of us are hopeful that we will break that 70-year trend in the State Assembly and elect a Democrat there, but that wouldn’t be able to happen without a solid candidate who is willing to put in the work.”
Johnson said she thinks some voters in the rural parts of the county “feel neglected.” She said she had one conversation with a voter whose door hadn’t been knocked since former President Bill Clinton ran for office.
“It isn’t just Democrats, it is any politician doing that kind of outreach, and I mean, to me, that’s just kind of human nature, right?” Johnson said. “You want somebody to come and introduce themselves and tell you what they stand for and answer your questions and ask for your vote. … I think a lot of rural doors have not been knocked on in a long time by anybody.”
Johnson decided to enter the race for the district because of the new maps, the potential for Democrats to win a majority in the Assembly and because she wanted to help “get sh*t done.” During the primary Johnson’s opponent questioned how well her progressive positions would play in rural Vernon County, though she won the Democratic primary handily, including with about 60% of the Vernon County votes.
Johnson, who described herself as a “radical pragmatist,” was critical of the idea that the term “progressive” was being used in a negative way. She said many progressive ideas are popular throughout the rural areas where she is speaking with voters.
Rural communities “care about clean air and clean water,” she said, “and the way that clean air and clean water happens is that there are expectations and standards put into place.”
She also hears from a lot of voters “that comprehensive health care, including reproductive care, including dental and vision and mental health care, is something that everybody has a right to,” Johnson added. “That’s a progressive idea that is very popular.”
“This state was built on progressive ideals, and when I talk to voters at doors, when I talk to voters at events, when I hear from people, they are supportive of those very common sense, very progressive, all-boats-rise ideas,” Johnson continued.
In August, Lawler recalled door knocking at a house with a Trump sign in the yard. The person, he learned, was a supporter of Bernie Sanders two election cycles ago and this year is likely to vote for former President Donald Trump. He said the voter expressed concerns about women’s ability to access abortion and protecting the environment.
“I would imagine that [Johnson] would find a lot of common ground with that person, and maybe even earn their vote even if they still voted for Trump at the top of the ticket,” Lawler said. “That’s the kind of approach that we’re adopting — listening to people, searching for that common ground.”
Karen DeSanto, the Democratic candidate for Assembly District 40, is taking a similar approach throughout the district — leaning on her ability to converse and connect with people. DeSanto faces Sauk County Republican Party Chair Jerry Helmer in November for the seat that represents parts of Sauk and Columbia counties, including Spring Green, Portage and Baraboo.
On a Monday afternoon in downtown Baraboo in mid-August, a woman yelled from her car at DeSanto, who was explaining to the Examiner how she decided to go to clown college in her 20s.
“Karen! Good luck with everything,” the woman said.
“Thank you,” DeSanto yelled back. The woman quipped that she would vote for her as mayor of the town as well if she could. DeSanto laughed. It was not the only time throughout the day that DeSanto, who is depicted in a mural on one of the buildings downtown, was stopped by people in town.
When asked about the interaction, DeSanto said that she has met a lot of people through her work in the Boys and Girls Club of West Central Wisconsin. DeSanto retired as CEO last year after 12 years with the organization and in her retirement, Rep. Dave Considine (D-Baraboo), who decided he wouldn’t run for reelection this year, approached DeSanto about running for the seat.
“I said ‘Get out of my house, Dave. I’m retired,’ ” DeSanto said. Then, she said, she did some soul-searching.
“Here’s what I discovered is — I believe in peace and I believe strong communities make great places to live and our schools are better and our kids and families are better,” DeSanto said. Those values brought her to the decision to run, she said.
DeSanto said her conversations at the doors were a major part of her success and she’s continuing that in the general election. She said she thinks her values and understanding of issues resonated with voters. Through her work with the Boys and Girls Club, she said she saw the hurdles that families in rural parts of the state face, including having access to broadband internet access, food disparities, and she’d like to see some of those issues addressed in the Assembly.
“I love looking at states that provide lunches to every kid. Food is a real disparity for many, many, many families in Wisconsin,” DeSanto said.
Experienced lawmakers running for reelection are also being pushed into rural parts of the state in a way they haven’t been in previous years.
When Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) was first elected in 2018, the 91st Assembly District covered only the city of Eau Claire. The new 91st district includes part of Eau Claire as well as smaller cities, towns and villages including Altoona, Seymour, Fall Creek, Ludington, Bridge Creek and Otter Creek.
While Emerson won in her prior general elections with more than 60% of the vote, the new district has only a slight Democratic lean. Emerson will face Republican Michele Magadance Skinner, an Eau Claire County Board supervisor, in the race for the seat in November.
“It’s a very tight district now, but it should be,” Emerson said.
Rural voters in new parts of the district could play a key role in whether Emerson retains the seat. She said she’s been knocking on a lot of rural doors this year, which means a change in logistics “Doing doors is a big piece of how we, as Democrats, do things for an election,” Emerson said. “Last weekend, I was in an area where it was like, ‘OK, go knock out a door, get back in the car, drive a half mile to the next door.”
Emerson said there has been a “learning curve” with the new district. She said she’s been taking the time to meet new voters and to learn more about issues, including rural broadband, the way that townships interact with cities and counties and looking at school issues from a new perspective. Her old district included just one school district, while the new one includes all or part of eight.
Despite the shift, Emerson said, “I think at the same time we all have the same Wisconsin values of hard work and wanting our communities to be better. And that doesn’t change, no matter whether you’re in a city or in a rural area.”
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The AARP poll was conducted between Sept. 11 and 13 following last week’s debate. People watch the ABC News presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump at a debate watch party at The Abbey, an iconic gay bar, on September 10, 2024 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A poll of voters statewide released Wednesday found that the presidential and Senate races in Wisconsin remain close, especially among older Wisconsin voters.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris led Republican former President Donald Trump polled 49% to 48% in a head-to-head match up. Of those polled, 3% were undecided. When third-party candidates were included, Harris led Trump 48% to 45%.
The AARP poll interviewed 1,052 likely Wisconsin voters, including 600 voters over the age of 18 and an additional 452 likely voters aged 50 and older. The poll included in total 800 voters over the age of 50. It was conducted between Sept. 11 and 13 following last week’s debate and was conducted by Republican-leaning polling firm Fabrizio Ward and Democratic-leaning Impact Research.
When focusing on voters aged 50 and older, Trump had a narrow lead of 47% to 45%. Within this group, Trump had a 10-point lead with 51% of support from voters between the ages of 50 and 64, while Harris had a 6-point lead with 49% of support among voters 65 and older.
The poll represents a large shift from the last AARP poll done in Wisconsin, before President Joe Biden decided to leave the race. In the July poll, Trump led Biden 44% to 38% on a ballot that included third party candidates.
“Wisconsin voters over age 50 are the biggest voting bloc and could tip the scale for any candidate in this election,” AARP Wisconsin State Director Martha Cranley said in a statement. “If candidates want to win, they should pay attention to the issues that matter to voters 50 and older, from protecting Social Security to supporting family caregivers.”
Of voters ages 50 and older, 77% said a candidate’s positions on Social Security are very important in deciding whom to vote for in November. Other important issues among the age group included Medicare, helping people stay in their homes as they age and the cost of prescription drugs.
The poll also showed that the Wisconsin Senate race remains close. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is running for her third term, led Republican candidate Eric Hovde by 50% to 47%. Of the participants, 3% were undecided.
Among voters 50 and older, Hovde held a 1-point lead with voters between the ages of 50 and 64 favoring him by 11 points. Meanwhile, Baldwin held an 8-point lead among voters 65 and older. Independent voters favored Baldwin by 9 points.
The poll also asked participants about the Wisconsin Assembly, where new maps have put the majority in play for the first time in over 10 years. It found a 46% tie between Republicans and Democrats. With voters 50 and over, the “generic” Republican held a 6-point lead. Democrats held an 8-point advantage among voters 18-34, which drove the tied result.
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The RSLC announced a slate of ads Wednesday that it will be launching in Wisconsin to target three Democratic candidates running for the state Assembly. Republicans currently hold a 64-seat majority. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
The Republican State Leadership Committee is investing funds and launching ads in Wisconsin in an effort to help protect Republicans’ long held majorities in the state Assembly and Senate.
Wisconsin’s state legislative races are in the spotlight this election cycle as new legislative maps adopted this year have created the opportunity for a shift in power for the first time in over 10 years. The RSLC has identified Wisconsin as one of the states where Republican majorities need to be defended and said in early September that it and its affiliated PACs have invested over $34 million this cycle across 21 states with a focus on Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. The announcement comes as the group’s Democratic counterpart is boosting Wisconsin Democratic state legislative candidates.
As a part of the effort, the RSLC announced a slate of ads Wednesday it will launch in Wisconsin to target three Democratic candidates running for the state Assembly. Republicans currently hold a 64-seat majority.
RSLC President Dee Duncan said in a statement that the organization’s “top priority these next few weeks is to defend our GOP majorities in battleground states and the best way to play defense is to go directly on offense.”
Duncan said the ad campaign will “make an example” of Democratic candidates in Wisconsin by “holding them accountable.” The organization is launching similar ads in Arizona and New Hampshire.
“We will continue to invest the necessary resources needed through Election Day to defend our majorities across the country and hold the line against extremist Democrats running up-and-down the ballot on November 5th,” Duncan added.
The organization is running ads targeting three Democratic candidates for their views on Wisconsin’s school voucher programs, which allows students to attend private schools at taxpayer expense. Each candidate is running in a competitive district to oust a current Republican lawmaker.
The focus on the choice program is notable as the state Legislature plays an influential role in deciding the shape of education funding. In recent legislative cycles in Wisconsin, lawmakers have chosen to make increasing investments into the state’s voucher program, even as public school funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation and schools are increasingly going to referendum to ask voters to pay additional property taxes to fund school costs.
One ad focuses on Democrat David Marstellar, a health care advocate and former businessman, running against Republican Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek), who was first elected to the Assembly, in the race for the 21st Assembly district. The district covers Oak Creek and parts of Milwaukee and Greenfield.
The ad asks “Who should decide where Wisconsin kids should go to school? Parents or Madison politicians?” It then accuses Marstellar of thinking politicians should decide. It includes a written comment from Marstellar included in Vote411, a voter guide funded by the League of Women Voters Education Fund.
“We need to invest money in our public schools rather than for-profit voucher schools that get to pick their own students. Public education should be guaranteed for every child in our state, and the money should not be diverted to voucher schools,” Marstellar said. “If people want to send their children to private schools, they should pay for it themselves.”
Rodriguez, for her part, has long been an outspoken advocate for Wisconsin’s school voucher program.
Another ad will focus on LuAnn Bird, a former school board member and executive director of Wisconsin’s League of Women Voters, who is running against Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) in the race for the 61st Assembly District. The toss-up district covers the southwestern Milwaukee villages of Greendale and Hales Corners and parts of Greenfield.
The third ad will target Joe Sheehan, former superintendent of the Sheboygan Area School District and executive director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation, who is running against Rep. Amy Binsfeld (R-Sheboygan) in the 26th Assembly district, which represents Sheboygan.
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