It’s Nov. 5, Election Day. Wisconsinites can head to the polls to cast their ballot at their designated polling location anytime between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Need a refresher on what you need to successfully vote? Take a look at The Daily Cardinal’s voter guide.
Here’s a rundown of the races we will be following:
Presidential: Kamala Harris (D) vs. Donald Trump (R)
Vice President Kamala Harris faces off against former President Donald Trump for the presidency.
The most recent Marquette Law School poll released on Wednesday found Harris is supported by 50% of likely voters and Trump supported by 49%. In late September, the previous poll found that Harris received 52% and Trump 48% among likely voters.
Harris last visited Madison Wednesday to energize young voters during the final stretch of the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump visited Waunakee, located just north of Madison, on Oct. 1, marking the first visit to Dane County in an election year made by a Republican presidential nominee ahead of the general election in 26 years.
Dane County is expected to play a crucial role in this election. NBC News reported Dane County is one of seven counties that could decide the election. In Dane County, 202,035 absentee ballots have been returned as of Nov. 4. The total number of absentee ballots cast in Wisconsin has also far surpassed the number of absentee ballots cast in 2016, the last presidential election prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Senate: Tammy Baldwin (D) vs. Eric Hovde (R)
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin faces Republican challenger Eric Hovde in a tight race for the U.S. Senate seat.
The most recent Marquette Law School poll released on Wednesday found Baldwin supported by 51% to Hovde’s 49% of likely voters.
Baldwin last visited Madison alongside Harris for Wednesday’s “Get Out the Vote” rally. Hovde visited Madison just a day prior to speak at a College Republicans of University of Wisconsin-Madison event on Oct. 29, downplaying climate change and talking abortion.
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and Republican challenger Erik Olsen vie for the 2nd Congressional District seat. Olson previously ran for the seat two years ago.
The 2nd Congressional district covers Dane County, Sauk County, Iowa County, Lafayette County and Green County, as well as part of Rock County. The district is liberal-leaning, housing both the state’s capital and UW-Madison campus.
In addition to the 2nd Congressional District, we will also be watching key races in Wisconsin’s 1st, 3rd and 8th Congressional Districts.
Assembly and Senate races
The Nov. 5 election will be the first Assembly and state Senate races to take place under Wisconsin’s new legislative maps.
Gov. Evers passed a proposal on Feb. 19 to redraw Wisconsin’s legislative maps ahead of the 2024 election. The new maps come after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the state’s Republican-drawn maps unconstitutional because districts were not contiguous in a 4-3 decision.
While the previous legislative maps allowed Republicans to secure overwhelming majorities in both chambers despite the Wisconsin electorate’s near-even partisan split, the new maps will allow for more competitive Assembly and Senate races in the state.
Currently, Republicans hold a 64-35 majority in the Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the Senate.
All members of the Assembly and state senators in even-numbered districts will run in redrawn districts in 2024. State senators in odd-numbered districts will remain in office until their current term ends in 2026.
Key races we are watching include Madison-specific races such as Assembly districts 76, 77, 78 and 79 and Senate District 26. We will also be watching Assembly districts 85, 88, 92 and 94 and Senate districts 8, 14, 30 and 32, which are considered battleground districts under Wisconsin’s new legislative maps.
Statewide referendum
Also on the ballot is the following statewide referendum question:
“Eligibility to vote. Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?”
The referendum, proposed by Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature, looks to further clarify that the law applies to all elections and referendums, whether local, state or national, by changing the words from “every United States citizen age 18 or older” to “only a United States citizen age 18 or older.”
The change in wording could prevent Wisconsin localities from allowing noncitizens to vote in the future. While some municipalities in other states have allowed noncitizen voting for local elections like school board races, nowhere in Wisconsin currently allows noncitizen voting.
[4 p.m.]
By Alaina Walsh and Mary Bosch
Campus polling locations including Gordon Dining & Event Center, Smith Residence Hall and the Nicholas Recreation Center are experiencing strong turnout so far, Chief Inspector at Gordon Dining & Event Center Mike Verveer said.
Verveer told The Daily Cardinal many first-time voters were enthusiastic with a line of over 100 voters right as the polls opened at 7 a.m.
“It’s really fun congratulating folks on their first vote ever,” Verveer said. “I can’t recall so many voters arriving early, well before the polls opened.”
Verveer said more than 2,000 students are assigned to vote at Gordon, including UW Housing residents in Sellery, Witte and the nearby Lucky apartments.
HVerveer estimated about half of those students voted early. Poll workers have been processing those early ballots. As of 2 p.m., Madison has processed about a quarter of the roughly 55,000 absentee ballots.
Unlike other cities, Madison does not use a central counting center for early votes. Instead, early and absentee ballots are returned to the voter’s local polling place and counted on Election Day.
Verveer said the absentee counting process will likely continue until polls close at 8 p.m. Enthusiasm is high among the voters he’s seen at Gordon, Verveer said.
At Memorial Union, Chief Election Inspector Izzie Behl told the Cardinal voting was much smoother than the socially distanced 2020 election held during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wait times peaked at about 10 minutes. During early voting, students reported lines of about two hours.
“[In 2020] we had a line out the door, because it was six feet distancing, and we had to wait for everybody to get through. We could only serve like six people inside my building at a time,” Behl said.
Behl said excitement has been high with lots of same-day voter registration. Within the first hour of voting, Memorial Union election workers registered 52 people, and that number reached 200 by 3 p.m. Since early voting began two weeks ago, Behl said election officials at Memorial Union have registered 1,100 people.
[2 p.m.] Midday turnout update
By Noe Goldhaber
Turnout in Madison reached 23% as of 1:45 p.m., according to the Madison election stats dashboard. The Madison Clerk’s Office has processed 13,621 absentee ballots out of the 56,227 submitted, and 46,057 ballots have been cast in-person at the polls.
Dane County Clerk Scott McDonnell told reporters he was expecting “raw numbers higher than four years ago” because of Dane County’s population growth.
McDonnell also said there were no problems reported at the polls so far.
[7:30 a.m.]
by Jake Wesson and Drew Wesson
Wisconsin polls opened at 7 a.m. Many UW-Madison campus voters told The Daily Cardinal they were eager to vote in their first presidential election.
Grace Reichert, a UW-Madison freshman and first-time presidential voter, said she was nervous about the election.
“I’m hoping it's going a particular way, but I don’t know,” Reichert said.
Reichert stood in a line of about five minutes at the Frank Holt Center in the UW-Madison Lakeshore Residence community.
More than 10,000 Madison residents have already voted early at campus locations.
Anna Kleiber is the state news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the arts editor. Anna has written in-depth on elections, legislative maps and campus news. She has interned with WisPolitics and Madison Magazine. Follow her on Twitter at @annakleiber03.
Jake Wesson is a staff writer and photographer for The Daily Cardinal. He has written stories covering politics, protests, public safety and more. You can follow him on Twitter @jake_wesson11.
Mary Bosch is the photo editor for The Daily Cardinal and a first year journalism student. She has covered multiple stories about university sustainability efforts, and has written for state and city news. Follow her on twitter: @Mary_Bosch6
Drew Wesson is a staff writer and photographer for The Daily Cardinal. He has written stories covering public safety, protests, political events and more. You can follow him on Twitter @drewwesson1.
Noe Goldhaber is the college news editor and former copy chief for The Daily Cardinal. She is a Statistics and Journalism major and has specialized on a wide range of campus topics including protests, campus labor, student housing, free speech and campus administration. She has done data analysis and visualization for the Cardinal on a number of stories. Follow her on Twitter at @noegoldhaber.
