(The Center Square) – Seven locations in Milwaukee ran out of ballots, causing voting delays on Election Day.
But any voter in line by 8 p.m. was allowed to vote in what Milwaukee Election Commission Spokesperson Melissa Howard called a “historic” election in terms of spring turnout on Tuesday.
Milwaukee expanded the use of ExpressVote machines and sent couriers with ballots to the polling locations that ran out of paper ballots.
Ballots running out has “never occurred here in the city” Howard told reporters on Tuesday.
The election included three key ballot items statewide headlined by the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which Susan Crawford led with 57.6% of the vote compared to 42.4% for Brad Schimel with 47% of precincts reporting by 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
Vote counting was expected to continue into early Wednesday at central count locations in places such as Milwaukee County. Early votes could not begin to be counted until polls closed at 8 p.m.
Early results showed 61% of the first 41% of voters approved of adding a voter identification requirement to the Wisconsin constitution. Voter ID is already law and the ballot initiative would also add it to the state constitution.
The race for superintendent of the state’s Department of Public Instruction was also undetermined with incumbent Jill Underly holding 55% of the vote and challenger Brittany Kinser holding 45% with 43% of precincts reporting as of 9 p.m.
The Supreme Court race gained national intrigue as Elon Musk and President Donald Trump weighed in on the race with support for Schimel over the weeks before the election.

(The Center Square) — UW-Milwaukee’s new chancellor doesn’t have far to go to take his new job.
The university announced Dr. Thomas Gibson will start as the new chancellor at the Milwaukee campus later this summer. Gibson is already chancellor at UW-Stevens Point.
“Tom Gibson has made a tremendous impact at UW-Stevens Point, and he will be an extraordinary leader for UW-Milwaukee,” UW President Jay Rothman said in a statement.
“Tom has impressed us with his leadership style and grace,” Regent President Amy B. Bogost added. “He has handled every challenge facing him, from improving enrollment to resolving structural deficits to building external support. He was the right leader at the right time to move UW- Stevens Point.”
Bogost said she has “the same expectations for him at UW-Milwaukee.”
Gibson is replacing UW-M Chancellor Mark Mone, who announced his retirement last year shortly after pro-Palestinian protests took over parts of campus.
Mone never ordered the protesters or their illegal campus camps moved.
To end the protests, Mone signed an agreement with pro-Palestinian protesters that promised no punishments for protesters, and agreed with the protesters calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, and their claims that Israel’s actions caused a “plausible genocide.”
Jewish groups, and UW leaders criticized Mone for that agreement. He apologized, but later announced his retirement.
Gibson has been with the University of Wisconsin system since 2021. Before that he worked at Bowling Green State University.
UW leaders say they’re in the process of deciding about an interim chancellor at the Stevens Point campus.
Gibson made more than $301,000 as chancellor at Stevens Point. He is slated to make $525,000 as chancellor at UW-Milwaukee.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is headed to Germany for the Hannover Messe trade show, which runs through Friday.
The cost of the taxpayer-funded trade trip in coordination with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. was not disclosed nor was the state’s traveling parting for the event, though WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes is also at the event, meeting with Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, and Chair of Cabinet Victor Fedeli.
Hughes was joined by WEDC Vice President of Global Trade and Investments Micah Oge as well as other WEDC staff.
Evers met with Baden-Wurttemberg Minister-President Winifried Kretschmann on Tuesday.
Evers’ trip includes visits to Hannover, Hessen and Berlin in Germany along with the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France.
Hannover Messe is the world’s largest industrial trade show with Evers’ staff saying he is promoting state exports and international investment in Wisconsin.
He will then attend DMEA, a digital health trade show from April 8-10 in Berlin.
Evers previously went to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg in 2023 and Japan in 2019 on trace visits.
“During a time of global trade uncertainty and chaos and trade wars out of Washington, maintaining our strong relationships with our global partners has never been more important to ensure continuity and certainty for our local businesses, regional economies, and communities,” Evers said in a statement. “I am excited to continue building and growing these critical connections and relationships with our partners to ensure the continued growth of Wisconsin’s economy.”

(The Center Square) – In the wake of an executive order aiming to tighten up voter ID laws, President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday about a potential state constitutional amendment appearing on Wisconsin’s ballots in a Tuesday, April 1, election.
“There is a very important Referendum (Question 1) on the April 1st Ballot to amend the State Constitution to require VOTER ID,” Trump wrote.
Wisconsin already requires that voters supply a photo ID at the polls, but enshrining that provision in the state Constitution would make it more unassailable by the state legislature and courts where it might be challenged.
Trump signed an executive order just last week requiring documented proof of citizenship for voter registration and requiring states to stop counting mail-in ballots received after election day. Some organizations have already said they plan to challenge the order in court.
Trump went on to mention other changes he’d like to see made to election laws in the post.
“This, and other Election Integrity measures, including banning Drop Boxes, and Same Day Voting with Paper Ballots, can only happen if you GET OUT AND VOTE!”
The president also urged Wisconsinites to vote for circuit court judge and former state attorney general, Republican Brad Schimel in a race for the state Supreme Court.
Schimel is running against another circuit court judge, Susan Crawford.
“[Susan] will be one of the most Liberal Judges ever elected, which would be a DISASTER for Wisconsin and, the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
The president has also repeatedly endorsed Florida House of Representatives candidates Jimmy Patronis and state Sen. Randy Fine in recent weeks, who are running in a special general election to fill vacancies left by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who abdicated his seat after being tapped for U.S. attorney general, though he ultimately withdrew himself from consideration from that position.

(The Center Square) — The campaigning in is almost over.
Candidates in the two Wisconsin statewide races spent the weekend crisscrossing the state in an attempt to connect with voters planning to head to the polls Tuesday.
Early voting in most Wisconsin communities ended Friday. As of Friday afternoon, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported more than 500,000 people cast an early ballot. That includes both mail-in and early in-person ballots.
The Elections Commission said, overall, early voting is up by more than 50%. In-person early voting is up by 102%.
Wisconsin Supreme Court race
The race with the most attention on the April ballot in Wisconsin’s race for the Supreme Court.
Judge Brad Schimel and Judge Susan Crawford are vying for the seat that’s being opened by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley’s retirement.
The race is already the most expensive judicial race in both Wisconsin and U.S. history. Wispolitics has reported that total spending is now north of $90 million and headed toward $100 million.
About $20 million of that spending can be tied to Elon Musk and his affiliated groups. That spending does not include the $2 million Musk handedout at a town hall meeting in Green Bay on Sunday. He gave million-dollar checks to two people at the rally because they signed his petition on activist judges.
The Schimel/Crawford race is just the first in a string of to-come races for Wisconsin’s high court. After this race, voters will see a Supreme Court race on their ballot each year until 2030.
State Superintendent Race
Voters in Wisconsin will also see two candidates for state superintendent on their ballots. Challenger Brittany Kinser is taking-on current State Superintendent Jill Underly.
Like the race for the supreme court, the race for state superintendent has seen record spending. WisPolitics last week said the two sides have spent more than $4.5 million on the race. That’s a record.
Questions over school choice, learning standards, and a focus on reading, writing, and math have defined the race.
Kinser last week picked up several endorsements, including from the Wisconsin State Journal. Underly hasn’t seen much public support in the race, with Gov. Tony Evers refusing to endorse either candidate this spring.
Voter ID Amendment
Wisconsin voters are being asked to decide if the state’s constitution needs to be updated with a voter ID amendment.
The question asks: “Shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?”
Local Races
Voters across Wisconsin will also see a number of local races and local tax hike questions on their ballots.The spring election is the time when voters choose school board members, local judges, and local councilmen.
WisPolitics last week reported that there are 89 school district referendum questions on ballots across the state, worth $1.6 billion.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said the process, not the substance, led to his veto of a bill that would have reverted evaluations of state school districts to previous levels.
Republican House Speaker Robin Vos, however, said the second-term Democrat’s veto shows Evers cares more about the establishment than student success.
Evers recently vetoed Assembly Bill 1 – the Legislature’s plan to reset the state’s K-12 school report card standards of 2019-20, make grades 3-8 standards the same as those set by the National Assessment of Education Progress, and make the high school testing standards the same as those from 2021-22.
Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly, who faces a challenge in Tuesday’s election from Brittany Kinser, announced the standard changes last fall, lowering what is proficient on ACT to 19 and dropping the terms basic and below basic in exchange for approaching and developing.
Evers said it’s up to the Department of Public Instruction and the state superintendent to change those standards back, not the Legislature.
“While I have been critical of the processes for recent changes to school scoring and standards, I am nevertheless vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to the Legislature’s attempts to undermine the constitutional authority and independence of the state superintendent of public instruction,” Evers, a former teacher, principal, school superintendent and state superintendent before becoming governor, said in his veto statement.
Vos said the veto shows Evers is more concerned with bureaucracy and political interests than he is with the state’s students.
“Gov. Evers’ veto shows his lack of willpower to address the problems facing our students,” Vos said in a statement. “It proves he doesn’t want to help students learn how to read. He wants to ensure the education establishment stays in power at the cost of student achievement. Today we have witnessed the governor’s “year of the kid” yield to political interests, protecting the bureaucracy and failed leadership of State Superintendent Jill Underly at the expense of Wisconsin students.”

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin appeals court on Saturday declined to halt Elon Musk’s plan to give $1 million each to two voters who sign a petition against “activist” judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut government spending.
Musk plans the giveaway at a Sunday night rally in Green Bay, Wis., for state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, a conservative Waukesha County judge who faces liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s pivotal election, which will determine partisan control of the court.
Wisconsin Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul filed suit Friday in an attempt to block the payments, claiming they were illegal. But a district court judge declined to issue an injunction Friday and the appeals court did as well Saturday.
Musk and President Donald Trump have endorsed Schimel in the Supreme Court race, calling Crawford an “activist” judge.
“Vote for Superjudge Brad Schimel in Wisconsin on Tuesday,” Musk wrote on X Sunday, before the Green Bay rally. “The Republican House majority is razor thin and the Democrats want to redrew Wisconsin districts to flip- the House and stop the government reforms.”
Musk’s post references his and Trump’s efforts to identify and cut what they call wasteful and fraudulent federal government spending, and the fact that Republicans hold a slim, 218-213, majority in the U.S. House with four seats vacant. Many Democrat members of Congress have opposed the cuts.
After Tuesday’s election, the Wisconsin Supreme Court could decide a number of key issues, including challenges to the state’s congressional maps.
The winner between Shimel and Crawford will replace retiring liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Democrats currently hold a 5-4 advantage on Wisconsin’s highest court.
The Schimel v. Crawford election is the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, with campaign spending approaching $100 million, according to reports.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is blaming Republican lawmakers for stopping potential building projects that impact corrections, higher education and veterans’ homes.
Republicans on the State Building Commission say they voted against the proposed two-year capital budget recommendations because of spending and inflation concerns, despite saying there are worthy projects.
The commission – made up of four Democrats and four Republicans – deadlocked 4-4 on a recent vote that blocked the infrastructure projects from moving forward in the process.
Evers, a second-term Democrat, says the delay will mean more costly projects as prices continue to rise.
“We have key infrastructure projects across our state that need repairs and investments, but Republican lawmakers continue to kick the can down the road, which only makes these projects more expensive with each day of delay while our buildings and infrastructure continue to deteriorate. It makes no sense,” Evers said.
Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, told Wisconsin Public Radio some projects are worth but new bonding is too much. She also said more discussion is needed.
Evers’ capital budget included almost $1.6 billion in projects for the University of Wisconsin System, more than $600 million for the Department of Corrections, $195 million for health care and $170 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Evers said the budget proposal would generate about $7.5 billion in economic activity and support more than 41,000 jobs across the state.
“These projects will support our veterans, help keep our communities safe, improve our university system, and create thousands of family-supporting jobs – this should be a no-brainer,” Evers said. “One way or another, these projects have to get done, and with reckless tariff taxes and trade wars that could cause the costs of these projects and building materials to go up, decisions by Republican lawmakers to obstruct this important work will only force taxpayers to pay more in the long run.”

(The Center Square) – A new report says Wisconsin’s public school managers knew about Milwaukee Public Schools’ financial crisis months before parents, voters and some school board members but didn’t say anything.
The Institute for Reforming Government released more than 650 pages of public records requests from State Superintendent Jill Underly and her Department of Public Instruction.
“It took eight months and a legal threat against DPI to uncover what role they played in the Milwaukee Public Schools finance crisis of 2024,” IRG’s Chris Reader said in a statement.
The public records requests date back to 2023 and looks into how MPS missed the deadline for its 2023 required financial reports. The records also show what DPI knew about the late financial reports and was done.
“Superintendent Underly’s administration treated MPS with kid gloves, which financially hurt districts across Wisconsin. The Department of Public Instruction should have acted, and now it’s clear the inaction hurt Wisconsin students,” Reader added.
Neither DPI nor Underly have responded to IRG’s report.
Underly said in an interview last June that she thought MPS was working on its late financial reports, and didn’t see any need for concern.
“[In 2023], MPS was late with different reports. They released one at the end of March, and then two in mid-April,” Underly said in an interview with CBS 58. “So, by mid-April [of this year], we were still not concerned.”
IRG said the records show that wasn’t quite the case.
“A July 2023 discussion among DPI finance staff concluded, ‘We saw what a political mess it was when MPS gives us bad data,’” IRG wrote. “In October 2023, DPI finance staff criticized MPS for using an alternative submission process instead of normal finance software, including a request to delete, correct, and replace 2023 finance data.”
Critics have said that had Underly or DPI warned about the depths of MPS’ financial struggles, voters may not have approved a $251 million referendum in April 2023. MPS’ financial problems became news a few months later.
“Why did DPI tell the MPS Board in February 2023 about 2023’s late finances but not inform the board until May 2024 of their 2024 finance crisis?” IRG added.
Reader also said there are unanswered questions about when, and if DPI and Underly knew that MPS’ late financial reports, and incomplete work could impact the finances of other school districts in the state.
“Correspondence from Superintendent Underly does not appear in the records. Thus, it is not clear when Superintendent Underly realized MPS would affect 420 other traditional school districts,” IRG’s report added.

(The Center Square) – The endorsements in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race continue to pour-in.
Judge Brad Schimel announced new law enforcement endorsements Wednesday after the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO endorsed him.
“I’ve got over 99% of the [law enforcement] endorsements,” Schimel told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber on Thursday morning. “She has one sheriff and one retired sheriff, both from Dane County, and one police officer from Eau Claire.”
Schimel and Judge Susan Crawford, however, have plenty of other endorsements.
This week, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jefferies threw his support behind Crawford. He called her a “strong Democratic candidate,” and said Crawford’s victory could flip Congress toward the Democrats as early as next year.
“Why is that important?” Jeffries said during the discussion. “Because there are gerrymandered congressional lines right now in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a 50-50 state, as I mentioned, but there are six Republicans and only two Democrats out of an eight-person [congressional] delegation because the lines are broken.”
President Donald Trump endorsed Schimel on social media last week and is being featured in a number of ads running across the state.
Schimel picked up another national endorsement on Thursday as talk show host Mark Levin told his followers on X to “Vote Brad Schimel for the Wisconsin Supreme Court so we don’t lose 2 Republican House seats.”
Former President Barack Obama has also endorsed Crawford, and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has also promised to campaign for her in Wisconsin.
The race between Schimel and Crawford is now the most expensive in both Wisconsin and U.S. history, with more $90 million in total spending.
That beats the previous record holder, Wisconsin’s 2023 race for Supreme Court, which saw more than $50 million in spending.
Voters will make their decision Tuesday.