Getty Images
Wisconsin voters go to the polls Tuesday to vote on a constitutional amendment that would change how federal funds that come to Wisconsin are distributed and to nominate partisan candidates for Congress and the state Legislature.
In southwestern and western Wisconsin, voters in the 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary will choose which of three rivals will challenge first-term U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) in November.
The three Democratic hopefuls are state Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point); small business owner and 2022 unsuccessful Democratic primary contestant Rebecca Cooke; and Eric Wilson of Eau Claire, a Democratic party activist.
Republican primary voters in the Fox Valley will nominate a candidate to run in November for the open 8th Congressional District seat. The three vying for the nomination are state Sen. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere), former state Sen. Roger Roth and businessman Tony Wied, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in this year’s presidential race.
The winner on Tuesday will face Democrat Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN and outspoken reproductive rights advocate, in November.
The 8th District seat was held by Republican Mike Gallagher, who was elected in 2016 and who resigned in April after earlier announcing he would not run for reelection this year. Because of the timing of his departure, a special election was not required under Wisconsin law; however, Gov. Tony Evers called a special election to fill the balance of the term, coinciding with the regular election.
Republican voters statewide will choose a candidate to run against U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, who is seeking her third term. Eric Hovde, owner and CEO of Sunwest Bank in California, will face two little-known contestants seeking to be the GOP nominee: Rejani Raveendran, a student Republican leader and single mother from Stevens Point, and Charles Barman, a construction superintendent from the Walworth County village of Sharon.
Hovde has already received the Republican Party of Wisconsin endorsement, and his campaign advertising focuses on Baldwin and the general election rather than on either of his rivals in the primary. Similarly, Baldwin in her campaign messaging tacitly assumes Hovde will be the Republican on the November ballot.
Legislature makeover
Tuesday will also include the first primary elections under new Wisconsin legislative maps after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the previous maps, approved in 2022, were unconstitutional.
The new maps include many Assembly and Senate districts in which the balance is more evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats and many more districts than the previous maps in which Democrats appear to have a slight advantage, based on past election results.
A total of 46 Assembly primaries are on ballots across the state, with 21 Democratic primaries and 25 Republican primaries to select candidates.
In the state Senate, there are Democratic primaries for two open seats, in Milwaukee and in Madison. Sitting Assembly members are competing in both primaries.
There are also Republican primaries for two Senate seats. One, in the Fox Valley, features two political newcomers. The other, in east-central Wisconsin between the Fox Valley and Milwaukee’s northern suburbs, pits an incumbent against a former Assembly member.
Constitutional amendment questions
Ballots statewide will ask voters two questions that relate to a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove the governor’s control over federal funds that come to the state.
Current state law gives the governor exclusive control over the distribution of federal funds that are not part of the regular state budget. One question on the ballot would take that power away from the governor’s office, requiring Legislative approval of all money that passes through the state government. Another question would ask voters to forbid the Legislature from delegating its spending power.
Voter ratification via a state referendum is the final step to pass a state constitutional amendment in Wisconsin, coming after the measure has passed the Legislature in two consecutive two-year sessions.
Since Evers took office in 2019, the Republican majority in the Legislature has passed and voters approved constitutional amendments expanding crime victims’ rights; allowing judges to consider past criminal convictions when setting bail for criminal suspects; and declaring that local elections officials cannot accept outside funding or engage private businesses to do the work involved in administering elections.
Each of those amendments passed notwithstanding limited opposition campaigns. Opposition to the state spending questions, however, has taken a much higher profile than in the past several amendment campaigns.
Several groups aligned with the Legislature’s Republican majority have campaigned for “Yes” votes on the two questions. Meanwhile, a broad mix of nonpartisan groups and Democratic-aligned organizations have mounted campaigns to vote “No” on the measures.
The last time voters in Wisconsin rejected a proposed constitutional amendment was in 2018, on a measure that would have eliminated the elected state treasurer’s office.
Early voting, turnout expectations
Early and absentee voting turnout for the August primary this year is keeping pace with the August 2022 primary, when a contested Republican primary for governor was on the ballot.
According to data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, on Aug. 9, 2022, the Monday before Election Day, 388,843 absentee ballots had been requested and 277,951 had been returned. Another 63,169 people had voted early in-person.
This year, as of Monday morning, 387,280 absentee ballots have been requested and 288,021 have been returned. In addition, 92,171 people have voted early in-person.
Both races are trailing far behind the 2020 August primary, when 903,760 absentee ballots had been requested by the Monday before the election and 506,709 had been returned.
The year 2020 was also the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sparked a substantial increase in absentee voting. (The WEC 2020 data does not address in-person absentee voting.)
But despite 2020’s increased early voting, the 2022 primary saw higher overall turnout, with 1,229,501 votes cast in that partisan primary compared with 957,197 cast in 2020, when there were no statewide offices on the ballot.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the agency doesn’t know how many votes will be cast on Tuesday, but that turnout in August primaries has ranged from as low as 9% of eligible voters in 2008 to 27% in 2022.
“Turnout for this type of election typically seems to be between the mid-teens and the upper 20s,” she said.
Security concerns
Since the 2020 presidential election, Wisconsin has been the focus of conspiracy theories about election administration. This year has seen a number of court battles over access to the polls and the methods by which voters can return absentee ballots.
During a special election for the 4th Senate District in July, the police were called to polling places in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale after a number of prominent election conspiracy theorists went to the polls to observe and started challenging every absentee ballot being counted. After leaving the polling places, the election deniers promised to return in subsequent elections this fall.
At the news conference Monday, Wolfe said engaging with observers is a topic that election officials have repeatedly been trained on over the last four years.
“That’s something that’s really sort of ingrained in the local election official training process at this point … making sure that the chief inspector is aware of their authority in terms of how they run the polling place and if somebody is causing a disturbance, that they know how to handle that and engage law enforcement if necessary.”
After Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, fears have been raised that he will try to do so again this year, with the help of allies installed on the bodies across the country responsible for certifying the results.
On Monday, pro-voting nonprofit All Voting is Local warned that any officials refusing to certify elections are not following the law.
“The refusal to certify an election goes against election officials’ job descriptions and their responsibility to voters in their county,” Sam Liebert, Wisconsin director for All Voting is Local, said in a statement. “Additionally, delaying or refusing certification of current and future elections based on unfounded allegations further erodes trust in the system and allows the possibility of election sabotage. We cannot normalize these egregious acts or fuel anti-voter conspiracy theories, especially during the 2024 election cycle.”
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Clarification: This report has been updated to clarify that, while a special election in the 8th District was not required under state law, one has been scheduled on the same days as the regular election to fill the remaining balance of the current term.
Most Popular
Comments / 0