Wisconsin heads to the polls Tuesday in August primary election

Wisconsin’s August primary election takes place Tuesday, with voters across the state heading to the polls to choose their preferred candidate for dozens of races on the ballot in November’s midterm elections. 

Polls open Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. If there is a line at a polling place at 8 p.m., voters should remain in line because they’ll still be allowed to vote. Election officials said Monday that because primary elections typically have lower turnout than general elections, long lines aren’t expected. 

In 2018, the last time Democrats had an open primary for governor, primary turnout was 23% of eligible voters. That year’s general election saw 59.7% turnout. In 2022, when Republicans had an open primary for governor and there was a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, primary turnout was 26.3% and the general election turnout was 57.2%. 

“For voters that are interested in voting tomorrow during the election in person at the polling place … it seems like [polls are busiest] earlier in the morning when the polls open, and then after work, you know once people are kind of headed home and in the evening hours, and so voters may want to consider times that are off some of those peak times,” Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said at a Monday news conference. “But again, I really don’t expect that tomorrow will be outside of the norm …  it’s typically 22 to 25 percent, which is a much much smaller turnout than you’d see in a general election. And so we typically don’t see waits and things like that in a partisan primary.”

With the lower turnout in a primary election, the counting of votes is usually faster than in a higher turnout general election. But, Wolfe said, results can still take time to be determined and she urged patience while election officials work to count ballots. 

“Election officials will always prioritize accuracy over speed,” she said.

As voters have increasingly turned to absentee voting since 2020, hundreds of thousands of people have already cast their votes in the election. WEC data from Monday morning shows that 368,000 people have requested absentee ballots and 268,000 have been returned. 

There were about 27,000 more absentee ballots returned ahead of the 2022 primary. 

It is too late  to put absentee ballots in the mail. But voters who requested absentee ballots and have not returned them yet can bring them to their  polling place, their local municipal clerk’s office or, in communities that use them, to an absentee ballot drop box. 

In Wisconsin, voters don’t need to register as a member of a party to vote in that party’s primary election. But, each voter must choose which primary they’re voting in at the polls and can only choose one. 

“If a voter does choose to not follow the directions and vote in more than one party’s primary, then their votes would not be counted for those contests,” Wolfe said.

Eligible voters who are not registered to vote can register at the polls on Election Day. To register, voters need to provide their name and place of residence to the poll worker. A valid Wisconsin ID can be used if it shows a voter’s current address but voters can also use a property tax bill, lease document, utility bill, a college identification card or bank statement. 

What’s on the ballot

State and national attention is focused  on the Democratic primary for governor in which four candidates are vying to be the party’s nominee — former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) and state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison). 

While those four are the candidates still actively running, the names of three Democrats who have dropped out of the race will also appear on the ballot: former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, former WEDC CEO Missy Hughes and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. 

“All of the candidates that filed their paperwork and were granted ballot access appear on the ballot,” Wolfe said. “Every single voter in Wisconsin, whether you voted right when absentee ballots went out in June or you’re voting at the polls on Election Day, will see the same ballot. And so, when a candidate chooses to drop out of a race, that actually has no impact on the official ballot, and any votes for that candidate would still be counted.” 

Further down the ballot, voters will decide the nominees in statewide races for lieutenant governor, state treasurer and secretary of state. All but one of Wisconsin’s eight congressional seats have contested primaries. There are also legislative races in every corner of the state and primaries for local partisan offices such as county sheriff.