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.”
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.
Wisconsin elections administrator calls 2024 election a ‘great success’
By: Henry Redman- Tuesday November 5, 2024 11:12 pm
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe at a press conference on Election Day | Screenshot via Zoom
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.
3 weeks ago
Milwaukee Elections Commission director says every ballot counted accurately
Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez addresses news media on election night. | Photo by Henry Redman
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: ballot recount ‘an issue that we’ve taken seriously’
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson talks to reporters at the City of Milwaukee central count facility, (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
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
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson arrives to question Milwaukee election officials
Sen. Ron Johnson and Wisconsin GOP Chair Brian Schimming | Photo by Henry Redman
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.
Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell arrives at Milwaukee Central Count with Sen. Ron Johnson (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
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
3 weeks ago
Green Bay counts ballots at its central count facility, responds to concerns
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.
Green Bay’s central count site, where absentee ballots are consolidated and tabulated. (Andrew Kennard | Wisconsin Examiner)
“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.
Central Count in Milwaukee. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
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
3 weeks ago
Wisconsin voters face long lines, but have few problems, Common Cause reports
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.”
Jay Heck, Common Cause Wisconsin
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
3 weeks ago
UW-Madison first-time voters register and observe voting at Memorial Union
UW-Madison students vote. | Photo by Baylor Spears
“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 UW-Madison freshman, 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 | Photo by Baylor Spears
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?”
UW-Madison College Democrats Chair Joseph Wendtland on Library Mall. | Photo by Baylor Spears
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.
Students wait in line to vote at UW-Whitewater | Photo by Henry Redman
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.
3 weeks ago
Volunteers redirect Milwaukee voters arriving at now-closed early voting locations
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.
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
Fort Atkinson Dems turn out for Evers, Baldwin and new maps
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers address a group of about three dozen members of the Jefferson County Democratic Party on Election Day. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
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: Sun Prairie, Wis. election official on why she does this work
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 western Wisconsin weigh in on Van Orden, Cooke race
Polling place in Independence, Wis. | Photo by Frank Zufall
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.”
In Eau Claire, also part of the 3rd CD, Amanda Krueger, 26, voted for Cooke. “I know her personally. she’s a hard worker and she’s ambitious and she represents my needs and wants. Krueger said the critical issue was “Women’s rights ” and “the right to choose.”
Aaron Shaw also said he voted for Cooke because he didn’t like the “slander techniques used against her.”
Mary, who didn’t want to use her last name voted for Van Orden, but she voted for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, she said, even though she is opposed to abortion. After ticking Harris for president she voted mostly Republican dowballot as her way of balancing her concern. She had no issues with Van Orden and didn’t hold it against him that he went to the Jan 6, 2020 protest in Washington, DC, because he left before the violence started.
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
DJ Reggie ‘Smooth Az Butta’ brings music to the polls
DJ Reggie “Smooth Az Butta” Brown at the polls in Milwaukee. | Photo by Isiah Holmes
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.”
Sun Prairie, Wis. polling place | Photo by Henry Redman
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
UW-Madison students arrive at polls on campus Tuesday
UW-Madison students line up to vote. | Photo by Baylor Spears
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.
Sam Schwalbach, a freshman from Hudson in the western part of Wisconsin, said he voted for Trump. | Photo by Baylor Spears
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 who ran into each other at the polls. | Photo by Baylor Spears
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
Watertown clerk expects to count ballots through early morning
Watertown, Wis. polling site | Photo by Henry Redman
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
Police in Milwaukee area report ‘no issues’ with voting
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, Wis. has ‘very brisk start’ to Election Day, rotates election observers
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
Orderly election morning in Milwaukee as early voting cuts down on lines
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.
Photo by Isiah Holmes
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
Progressive coalition leader: If Harris wins, credit students and women
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.”
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.
Voters enter a polling place at the Waunakee Public Library.| Photo by Henry Redman
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
Busy morning at downtown Madison, Wis. polling place
Voters cast their ballot in a polling place just blocks from the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. | Photo by Henry Redman
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.
Spirit Lutheran Church, a polling place in Eau Claire , Wis. Photo by Frank Zufall
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.
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.
Central Count in Milwaukee. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
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.”
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.
Voting rights activists and others gather at the Midtown Center in Milwaukee on the first day of early voting in July 2022. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
Election observers hover around Bonnie Chang, a member of Milwaukee’s Board of Absentee Canvassers, as she reveals blank flash drives to download vote totals from tabulation machines on Aug. 13. (Matt Vasilogambros | Stateline)
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:
Verbal or physical confrontation of voters by persons dressed in official-looking uniforms
Physical intimidation, such as standing or hovering close to voters as they attempt to vote
Flyers threatening jail time or other punitive action against persons who vote
Direct confrontation or questioning of voters or asking voters for documentation when none is required
Vandalism of polling places
Use of police officers to threaten or intimidate voters
Photographing or videotaping voters inside a polling place without their consent
Threats made by an employer to the job, wages, or benefits of an employee if he or she does not vote in a particular manner
Occupying the parking lot of a polling place in such a way that voters might be hindered from entering.
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
WEC Administrator gives final Election Day reminders
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe speaks at a virtual press conference after the state Senate voted to fire her on Sept. 14. (Screenshot)
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.
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.
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:
A bipartisan group of current and former elected officials signed a pledge to respect the results of the election — whatever they may be.
A separate bipartisan group of Wisconsin political leaders held a press conference to declare their confidence in the security of Wisconsin’s election system and to pledge to fight back against people who cast doubt on the legitimacy of the results — whatever they may be
Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and grassroots pro-democracy advocates held an event in downtown Madison to support the use of ballot drop boxes and to defend local election clerks in a season of threats, intimidation and destabilizing conspiracy theories.
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.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan
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.
Mandela Barnes | Photo Courtesy Power to the Polls
“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, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
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.
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.
Signs in Baraboo for SD 14 Democratic candidate Sarah Keyeski and AD 40 Democratic candidate Karen DeSanto.
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.
Democratic newcomers seeking to connect with rural voters
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.”
Breaking the trend
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.”
Tara Johnson for Wisconsin Assembly District 96 – June 06, 2024 (’Matt Roth)
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.”
Former Boys and Girls Club exec comes out of retirement
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.
DeSanto is depicted in a mural on one of the buildings in downtown Baraboo. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
“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.
Candidate signs are present in many yards throughout Baraboo, including for DeSanto’s Republican opponent Jerry Helmer and former President Donald Trump. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
“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.
One sitting Democratic lawmaker tries to expand her reach
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.”
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.
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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