(This story was updated to add new information.)
GREEN BAY ― Turnout for the nonpartisan spring election was busy as early morning voters encountered some lines on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, City Hall closed part of North Jefferson Street to traffic, much as in the 2024 presidential election. Voters waited outside polling locations before they officially opened at 7 a.m.
It feels like a presidential election, several likely voters told the Press-Gazette during the flurry of visits to the Green Bay area from liberal state Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford, conservative candidate Brad Schimel, and the single largest donor in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court Elon Musk.
Various politicized contests for leadership positions in state and local education have added to the feeling of importance.
Here are the election-related updates as they pop up throughout the day, including three official announcements from city clerk Celestine Jeffreys scheduled for 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 6:30 p.m.
More information about specific elections can be found in our April 1 voting guide.
Midday: Too early to tell if Green Bay turnout will exceed last state Supreme Court election
After noon at Redeemer Lutheran Church ,210 S. Oneida St., serving Wards 28 and 34, chief election inspector Jean Wiskow said it was busier than expected, but not overwhelming. More than 200 voters had cast ballots in Ward 28; more than 130 had been cast in Ward 34.
It’s unclear with these early figures if turnout will exceed that of the April 2023 election when Janet Protasiewicz beat Daniel Kelly for a spot on the state Supreme Court. The Brown County clerk’s office reported 542 total votes cast in Ward 28, and 471 votes in Ward 34.
There are many registered voters who have yet to vote. For Ward 34, poll workers noted the number of registered voters had increased from about 950 for the November 2024 general election to more than 1,130 voters now ― a nearly 16% increase. Many of the new registrations came during the November election, they said.
Voters wait in line to find out which ward to vote in on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at Redeemer Lutheran School in Green Bay, Wis. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
10:30 a.m. city clerk update: The city’s behaving much like it’s a presidential election
The city sent out 9,443 absentee ballots ahead of the Tuesday election, according to Jeffreys, which is about half of the 21,127 absentee applications the clerk had announced were sent ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The clerk’s 10:30 a.m. press conference confirmed what election workers at several polling locations told the Press-Gazette earlier Tuesday morning: This is a high-turnout election, and accordingly, the city has reacted much as it would in a general presidential election year.
The clerk announced that due to “changes in the tenor of the election,” the city decided to implement a plan that was developed to handle high-stakes elections in the wake of security concerns. The part of North Jefferson Street in front of City Hall is closed, with police redirecting traffic to adjacent streets.
Jeffreys said she was sending extra ballots to polling locations in light of conversations with other area clerks about the high turnout.
“I ask for voters to exhibit patience today,” Jeffreys said.
The clerk noted two hiccups in voting that morning: the loss of power at three west-side locations and the late opening of Christ of the Bay, 450 Laverne Dr., which serves residents south of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus. The person responsible for opening up Christ of the Bay was not present at 6 a.m. to make the church accessible to poll workers, Jeffreys said, and voting for Wards 4 and 5 did not begin until 7:22 a.m. The clerk said the city was discussing submitting a judicial order to extend voting at that location past the scheduled 8 p.m. closing time.
Early morning: Lines at the start of the polling day
Voters waited outside the door of four west-side polling locations at 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to four elections inspectors and several poll workers.
“There was a line from the [check-in] table to the front door,” a distance of about 100 feet, said Lucy Bunker, chief election inspector at Cavalry Lutheran Church, 1301 S. Ridge Road.
Bunker said about 200 people had voted so far at the church at 9:10 a.m. Tuesday. The robust morning turnout comes as voters head to the polls for the contentious race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, state school superintendent, and seats on the Green Bay School Board.
Election workers at several polling locations that the Press-Gazette visited said they had seen more people in the first two hours of voting Tuesday than they had seen the entire day of voting in the primary election back in February.
Ken Perez walks into his polling place on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at St. PaulÕs United Methodist Church in Green Bay, Wis. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Brief power outage
The power was briefly out at three west-side polling locations, according to the mayor’s office, but voting still hummed along when the Press-Gazette visited St. Jude’s Church and Perkins Park Shelter, two of the three affected places, between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Voters still fed their completed ballots into the voting counting machines that elections inspectors told the Press-Gazette were temporarily operating on battery power. The mayor’s office announced that power had been restored to all affected polling locations by 9:44 a.m.
This story will be updated.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay voting updates robust turnout in spring election
