GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Several counties across northeast Wisconsin are reporting high voter turnout from Tuesday’s state election.
A political expert says that the results show a Democratic upsurge, but it likely will not flip Republican-leaning counties permanently.
With the state Supreme Court race garnering nationwide attention at the top of the state ballot, Wisconsin voters flooded to the polls, with each county seeing at least a 5% voter increase from the 2023 spring election.
While some counties needed to print more ballots, Green Bay city clerk Celestine Jeffreys says she felt prepared.
“Talking to some of my other clerk colleagues, they had also seen an uptick in interest in participation late last week. So on Monday, I ordered more ballots, so nobody had to call me, no poll worker had to call me yesterday to say ‘I’m out of ballots’,” said Jeffreys.
Green Bay voters in the April election turned in more than 30.6 thousand ballots, an increase of nearly 5,000 from two years ago. For Jeffreys, it’s a sign of encouragement.
“From a clerk’s perspective, I’m hoping that Wisconsinites are like ‘Yes, April is just as important as November’,” said Jeffreys.
While Tuesday’s vote count did not rival the presidential election, counties across northeast Wisconsin saw major voting increases from 2023. Three of those counties, Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago, saw liberal judge Susan Crawford lead the popular vote, just a few months after those counties’ votes went to President Donald Trump.
Political expert and Lawrence University professor Jerald Podair says he does not think the blue-leaning results will repeat.
“It does have meaning, but it doesn’t, I think, presage a shift towards the Democrats in the future in this area,” said Podair.
Podair feels another reason for the high turnout was Democratic voters looking to bounce back after the November election.
“Your voters are angry, they are frustrated, they needed an outlet, and it did not surprise me that more Democrats than Republicans turned out for this election,’ said Podair.
Wisconsin voters will now wait until next year to vote on a statewide race, which once again, will feature an open seat on the state Supreme Court.
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