MILWAUKEE — Scattered storms peppered Wisconsin as voters flocked to the polls on Election Day in the swing state. With Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump pinned neck-in-neck in several swing states, Wisconsin voters will play a notable role in the outcome of the 2024 election.
Voters across Wisconsin are aware of their impact and nervous about the impending result.
The Harris-Trump matchup will likely come down to seven key swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — with Wisconsin sticking out as the state that decided the 2020 election.
The Badger State remained blue in almost every presidential election over the past several decades, but it is deemed a crucial battleground on Nov. 5.
Wisconsin’s importance in the 2024 race is underscored by Milwaukee hosting the Republican National Convention in July. Following President Joe Biden ending his bid for a second term, Harris held her very first top-of-the-ticket campaign rally in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s 10 Electoral College votes are projected to have a major sway in the outcome of the election.
The state’s smattering of small towns, cities, and large rural areas makes it one of the most contested states in the 2024 election.
Voters streamed into the Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning in Milwaukee, with the line to the polls winding through the hallway to the entryway.
Consisting almost entirely of first-time voters and students from Marquette University, the line required a wait time of 30 minutes to roughly two hours.
Ulema Georgandis, a junior at Marquette, cast her first ballot at the location on Tuesday afternoon. Originally from Texas, Georgandis switched her voter registration to Wisconsin because she thought her vote would have more influence in the swing state.
Georgandis said a large election issue for her is immigration because a portion of her family immigrated from Mexico to the U.S.
She was able to get in line before throngs of students came through the doors in waves of large groups, extending the line to the entrance.
Ky Catlett of Milwaukee also voted for the first time on Tuesday and said they were beyond excited to cast their first presidential vote for a woman.
Catlett, 20, voted for Harris and said they were worried about what a second Trump term would mean for the LGBTQ+ community.
“I have a lot of friends, including myself, who would be deeply impacted by any Trump policies, and I care about my life going forward,” they said.
Catlett said they were excited to cast their ballots, but are now nervous to await the results.
Rural Wisconsin
America’s Dairyland served a decisive role in the outcome of the 2020 election, turning out in favor of President Joe Biden. The current president won Wisconsin by a 0.6-point margin, or 21,000 votes.
For decades, Wisconsin was dubbed a key brick in Democrats’ “blue wall.” If Democrats won Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, they had a strong chance of winning the Electoral College. Wisconsin voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election from 1992 to 2012.
However, the state turned red in the 2016 election, favoring Trump by 47.9 percent of the vote to Democrat Hilary Clinton’s 46.9 percent. Wisconsin switched back to blue in 2020, with Biden earning 49.6 percent of the vote to Trump’s 48.9 percent.
Biden only won 13 of the state’s 72 counties, but the population density in the counties Biden clenched far outweighed those taken by Trump.
Rural Elkhorn, Wisconsin, a population of roughly 10,000 only had one polling location, and this year residents cast their ballots at City Hall.
Elkhorn resident Nancy Tomaska, 66, is a registered independent but voted for Harris because she believes Trump will overthrow America’s democracy.
“I really feel strongly that if Donald Trump were elected, he might try to have more of a fascist approach to it, quite frankly, and that is a top issue for me,” she said. “I understand inflation is a top issue for many people, and of course, I’m concerned about that, but my overriding concern is for the future of this country.”
Tomaska voted for Biden in 2020 and said she agrees with Harris’s stance to protect Social Security and Medicare.
“That’s very important to my husband and I, because we are just entering that age, and I don’t like the rhetoric I’m hearing from Donald Trump and Republicans about gutting those programs after we’ve spent our whole lives paying into them,” Tomaska said.
Tomaska and her husband, Robert, moved to Elkhorn from Illinois last year. This election marks the first they have voted in Wisconsin, and Robert said he feels as though their votes have more influence now.
“We still voted, it was important to vote, but we knew how Illinois was going to go,” Robert said. “ I feel that we’re doing something really important today, and we’re very excited to be a part of that.”
Life-long Democrat Mark West, 54, switched his vote to red in 2020 after not seeing the results he wanted from Democrats in power.
“He might be a complete idiot, but he gets things done,” West said. “He’s a little more hardcore than flippy, floppy Democrats the last eight years.”
West said he would like to see changes improving the economy, reducing immigration, and providing tax breaks.
Jim Schweitz, 49, a lifelong Democrat voted for the party down the ballot and said he’s never voted any other way besides blue.
Schweiz said voting for Harris was the proudest vote he’s ever cast. He said he wants to see America recover and step away from the chaos of the last Trump administration.
“When somebody does a job that poorly, you don’t give it back to them,” Schweiz said, referring to Trump.
Schweiz said he is surprised the polls show the race to the Oval Office being so contentious, and he thinks they do not reflect the influence of young voters.
“I don’t think it’s as close as everybody’s saying it is,” he said. “I think the polls are undercounting Democrats, because the polling methods are a little bit outdated, and they don’t necessarily reach people that are younger, that are more prone to vote left.”
Schweiz said he hasn’t seen such enthusiasm in the electorate since Barack Obama ran in 2008.
Waukesha County influence
Nearly 10 percent of all Wisconsin ballots cast for Trump in the 2020 presidential election came from one suburban county just west of Milwaukee — Waukesha County.
Unless Trump runs up a large victory of more than 20 percentage points in Waukesha County, it is unlikely he will pull a victory out of Wisconsin. Republicans cannot overcome the Democratic advantages in Madison and Milwaukee through just the state’s rural red counties.
In 2016 and 2020, Waukesha favored Trump with over half of voters casting a ballot in his favor, 61.6 percent of the vote and 58.7 percent, respectively, according to Politico election results.
Eastern Waukesha County residents Angela and Dan Piper used to have diverging politics, but on Tuesday the married couple wore matching “I Voted” stickers after casting their ballots for the same candidate.
Angela and Dan voted for Trump for a second and third time, respectively.
Angela was pushed to vote for Trump because she no longer agreed with the Democratic party. Angela said her top issue when casting her ballot was abortion, and Dan said his top issue was the economy and abortion.
“[Abortion] is pretty defined this year, whereas in previous elections there was some positive and negative to both sides,” Dan Piper said.
Dan said Trump has more staked-out platforms compared to Harris, such as that on foreign policy.
“Her understanding of government and how to rule is something totally different than what I would think would be appropriate,” he said. “I’m afraid that she’s too much of a public figure. We need somebody — even though Trump is kind of scary — I’d rather have somebody that scares you, just to threaten everybody else that you don’t know what he’s gonna do.”
Waukesha County is gradually shifting from Republican dominance to a tossup status, chipping away at the party’s advantage in right-leaning suburbs.
Although a Republican, Waukesha’s mayor, Shawn Reilly, endorsed Harris. Waukesha voters say his endorsement swayed how residents cast their ballots.
Tai Osborne, 29, rushed out of the Waukesha Public Library, a polling place for the county, with voter registration papers in hand. Osborne was in a hurry to get them home to her husband so he could cast a ballot before polls closed.
A small business owner, Osborne said she was still unsure of who to vote for but was leaning toward Trump because of his economic policies.
However, Osborne said Mayor Reilly’s endorsement of Harris could push her to vote for the vice president. Osborne said she was still undecided because she wasn’t sure if the information she has been told about either candidate is true.
“I don’t know what to believe about what I see online,” Osborne said. “And then with people posting, I’m like, ‘Oh, well, maybe that’s actually true’. Or like, ‘oh, that’s actually a good point.’ It’s confusing, mostly.”
Donna Pinczkowski, 78, dropped by the Waukesha Public Library to vote before picking up her grandchild from school across the street. An independent, she has written in her preferred candidate on the ballot for the last four election cycles, and the 2024 election is no exception.
Pinczkowski has been turned off by either political party because of their negative campaign tactics, attacking each other rather than bolstering their vision for a better America.
“I want the leader of our country to be admirable, honest, truthful, and want to help the people in our country who need the most help,” she said.
Pinczkowski found Trump and Harris lacking and said she is disappointed with their hateful messaging toward each other. She wishes for a God-fearing candidate who loves America.
It will be essential for Trump to hold Harris below the 39 percent of the vote Biden won in Waukesha County in 2020. Otherwise, the vice president is likely to take the county and potentially the whole state of Wisconsin.