Category: Fact briefs

Yes. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes received about 42,000 more votes than Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels. Both Barnes and Michels lost their statewide races.

Yes. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has the responsibility to enforce federal voting rights statutes including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in states, which it does through observing elections in the field. Federal elections monitoring has taken place since the passage of the act.

Yes. Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who won his re-election race early Wednesday, received five more votes than Republican candidate Tim Michels in the city of Port Washington, according to unofficial results from Ozaukee County.

Yes. In 1915, a state law was passed in Wisconsin stipulating that absentee ballots “must be opened only at the polls on election day while said polls are open.” While there have been minor language changes and renumberings throughout the years, the original law remains in place.

Yes. Wisconsin’s 1849 ban on abortion is the oldest in the nation that could go into effect post-Roe, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health advocacy and research organization.

Yes. Wisconsin’s early voting turnout for the 2022 midterm elections surpassed that the last midterm election in 2018. As of Nov. 8, 2022, a total of 741,795 people had voted early via mail or in person. That compares to 547,954 who voted early at the same point in 2018 — a 35% increase.

No. Voters living in the 38 central count communities — including Milwaukee, Green Bay, Beloit and Janesville—cannot return absentee ballots to their polling places on Election Day, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.