Washington – President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will compete in the Wisconsin presidential primary on Tuesday, but the race is now less about winning delegates and more about taking over the pivotal state in November. It has been placed. Wisconsin voters will also decide on two constitutional amendments that will determine how the state conducts elections and pays for them.
Republican Trump and Democrat Biden unofficially clinched their party's nominations on March 12, and although they are not directly facing each other on Tuesday's vote, both parties' campaigns are now anticipating another close race. Fully focused on what is expected. General election battle in the Badger State.
Biden visited Wisconsin on March 13 to announce $3.3 billion in infrastructure funding to more than 40 states, including a $36 million project in Milwaukee. Later in the trip, he opened a state campaign headquarters in Milwaukee, also Wisconsin's most populous city and home to this summer's Republican National Convention. President Trump will visit Wisconsin for the first time on Tuesday for an evening primary rally in Green Bay.
Biden and Trump are the only major candidates remaining in their respective primary fields, but voters in both races could instead vote for a “no-delegation.” This would be comparable to the “no-commit” voting option introduced in several other states.
In 2016, Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by 22,748 votes, a difference of just 0.76 percentage points. Four years later, Biden won the state by an even smaller margin of 20,682 votes (0.63 percentage points).
Voters in Tuesday's primary will also be presented with two Republican-backed statewide voting measures that will affect how elections are run. One proposal would ban the use of private subsidies in election administration. It's an effort to curb the influence of what the bill's supporters refer to as “Zuckerbucks,” named after a one-time donation made by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. I'm here. The liberal group helped pay for elections in communities across the country in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Another bill would incorporate current law regarding who can be a poll worker into the state constitution. Not a single Democrat supported the bill when it was introduced in the state Legislature.
Let's see what happens on Tuesday.
primary day
Wisconsin's presidential primary and spring election will be held on Tuesday. Voting ends at 9pm ET.
Voting details
In addition to the presidential primary, the Associated Press will also cover two statewide ballot measures known as Questions 1 and 2. The presidential candidates on the Democratic ballot are Biden and Dean Phillips. The candidates on the Republican ballot are Trump, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. In both primaries, voters also have the option of choosing a “delegation without direction” or filling in the name of another candidate.
who can vote
Any registered voter in Wisconsin can participate in the presidential primary or spring election.
Representative assignment rules
Wisconsin's 82 Democratic delegates are allocated according to standard national party rules. The 18 at-large delegates are allocated proportionally to the statewide vote, as are the 10 her PLEO delegates, or “party leaders and elected officials.” A total of 54 delegates are at stake in the state's eight congressional districts, with delegates allocated proportionally to each district's voting results. To qualify for a statewide delegate, a candidate must receive at least 15% of the statewide vote, and to qualify for a delegate in a congressional district, a candidate must receive at least 15% of the votes in that district. You need to get more than 15% of her.
There are 41 delegates at stake in the Republican presidential primary. The winner of the statewide vote will receive 17 delegates. Twenty-four delegates will be allocated based on votes in each of the state's eight congressional districts. The top vote getter in a Congressional district is given her three delegates from that district. This is the same method that Maine and Nebraska use to award electoral votes in general elections.
decision memo
Biden and Trump are the favorites in the presidential primary, as neither candidate faces a major challenge. Initial indications that the state is winning at a level consistent with the overwhelming margins seen in most other contests held this year may be enough to determine a statewide winner.
The constitutional amendments were close to traditional partisan lines, with Republican state legislators supporting the two bills and Democrats opposing them. Therefore, a state's voting history and political demographics will inform the racial recruitment process.
In 2016, Clinton lost statewide despite winning 66% of the vote in Milwaukee County, 70% in Madison's home county of Dane County, and 51% in La Crosse County. Four years later, Biden narrowly won the state overall, winning 69% of the vote in Milwaukee, 76% in Dane and 56% in La Crosse. Mr. Trump won about 52% of the vote in Brown County, where Green Bay is located, in 2016 and 2020, but Mr. Biden outperformed Ms. Clinton by about 4 percentage points there. Turnout in Tuesday's primary should be significantly lower than in the presidential election, but if the “no” votes in these and other counties are closer to Clinton's numbers than Biden's, that means the bill will pass. This will serve as an indicator.
The Associated Press does not make predictions and declares a winner only if it determines there is no scenario in which a successor candidate closes the gap. Even if a race is not called, the Associated Press will continue to report on newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. At that time, The Associated Press will clarify that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
What will turnout and advance voting look like?
As of March 1, there were 3.4 million registered voters in Wisconsin. The state does not register voters by political party.
Turnout for the 2022 midterm elections was about 14% of registered voters in the Democratic primaries for governor and Senate, and 19% to 20% in the Republican primaries.
About 26% of the votes in the 2022 Wisconsin primary were cast before Election Day. In the 2020 presidential primary, which took place during the first weeks of the pandemic, pre-Election Day votes accounted for 74% of the total votes cast. In the 2016 presidential primary, he received about 10% of the total vote.
As of Wednesday, 166,596 votes had been cast by Election Day, about 73% by mail and about 27% in person.
How long does it usually take to count votes?
For the 2022 midterm primary elections, The Associated Press first reported results at 9:14 p.m. ET, or 14 minutes after polls closed. Election night counting ended at 3:01 a.m. Eastern time, with a total vote count rate of approximately 99.8%.
Have you arrived yet?
As of Tuesday, there are 104 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, 139 days until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and 217 days until the November general election.
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