Riley Vetterkind, @email
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin’s local election officials reported a smooth Spring Primary on Tuesday, demonstrating that Wisconsin’s municipal and county clerks are prepared to administer the three remaining scheduled elections this year.
“I’m grateful that Wisconsin voters can count on such dedicated and skilled public servants to run their elections,” said Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe. “Despite the last major election being 10 months ago, we’ve shown at the state and local level that we’re ready for 2024.”
Feb. 20 was the first election where new, WEC-developed absentee envelopes were used by voters. As with all elections, WEC staff extended their normal working hours Tuesday to ensure local clerks and voters were well-supported if they had Election Day questions or concerns.
The nonpartisan Feb. 20 Spring Primary narrows the number of candidates who will appear on the ballot for the April 2 Spring Election. There were no statewide contests in this year’s Spring Primary. Ballots mainly featured local or judicial races. Many municipalities – and even some wards within municipalities – did not have a Spring Primary on Tuesday.
The WEC does not plan to calculate preliminary, unofficial statewide turnout figures for Tuesday’s election since there was not a statewide contest on which to base the turnout estimate. The most reliable and accessible source of turnout estimates would be local election officials, who can speak to turnout in their respective communities.
It is normal for unofficial election results to change slightly as election officials conduct canvasses to ensure an accurate vote total while completing the certification process.
Election results are not final until they are certified. Municipal Boards of Canvassers offer the final verification and certification of municipal-level contests, such as primaries for mayor and city council, and also review county and state-level contests before forwarding to the county; School Districts Boards of Canvassers offer final verification and certification of school district contests; county boards of canvassers offer final verification and certification for county-level contests, such as the primaries for county board, and also review state-level contests before forwarding to the WEC; and the chair of the WEC offers the final verification and certification for state-level contests, such as the primaries for circuit court judge.
The deadlines associated with each canvass are available in the WEC’s 2023-2024 Calendar of Election Events: https://elections.wi.gov/resources/quick-reference-topics/2023-2024-cal…
The chairman of the WEC must certify the Feb. 20 election results by March 5. The WEC will publish official state-level results once they have been canvassed at the local level and certified. The WEC does not centrally compile unofficial results. However, unofficial election results are available on county websites, and a list with links to these county election sites is available here: https://elections.wi.gov/wisconsin-county-election-websites