Election officials reported brisk turnout today amid well-financed efforts to get voters to the polls in the state Supreme Court race between conservative Brad Schimel and liberal Susan Crawford.
Washington County Clerk Ashley Reichert posted on X that she expected turnout to hit 70% today, up from 56% in the 2023 Supreme Court race.
Two years ago, county voters cast 52,380 ballots in the Supreme Court race. In a phone interview, Reichert said hitting 70% would mean about 68,000 votes cast.
She said the county began an effort to provide local clerks with resources to expand their early voting hours, and the number of absentee ballots cast there more than doubled compared to two years ago.
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“All of the knocking of doors and emails and text message and ads on everything, I believe is also driving turnout,” she said.
Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez said turnout in the state’s largest city was “historic.” Two years ago, city voters cast 111,933 votes.
“It’s an exciting day, historic turnout. Lots of activity,” she said in a phone interview.
Dem state Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs posted on X this afternoon that Milwaukee’s central count had tallied 28,803 absentee ballots as of 3:22 p.m. It had received 49,060 absentee ballots, meaning 59% of them had been processed at that point.
Village of Suamico Clerk Michelle Bartoletti said she thought this morning the Brown County community was on pace to hit 80% turnout. It was 95% in November for the presidential election in the strongly GOP community.
Bartoletti said she even ordered more ballots to be safe, though things started to slow right after she made the move. Still, about 1,480 votes had already been cast this morning with 2,100 absentee ballots returned. The community cast 4,282 in April 2023.
She said some might have come out early hoping to beat bad weather that was predicted to roll in this evening.
“I’m not really sure why the morning was gangbusters. But it really was,” she said.
