The votes are in, and there are winners after yesterday’s Election Day.
Looking across the state, most of southeast Wisconsin’s incumbents won their primary races, as expected. However, two statehouse races saw incumbents going against each other. Dan Knodl beat Janelle Brandtjen in the race for state representative in the Menomonee Falls area. In Fond du Lac, state Senator Dan Feyen beat former state Rep. Tim Ramthun. In Waukesha County, Lesli Boese won the race for D.A. She takes over in that job immediately, while the other candidates head toward the November election.
Overall, here in the Dairyland Wisconsin voters said No to putting limits on the governor’s spending powers. Voters yesterday rejected a pair of constitutional amendments that would have given lawmakers some say in how billions of dollars in federal money was spent. Democrats in the state framed the questions as a Republican power grab. Conservative groups in the state said there needs to be some oversight in how those dollars are spent. About 58 percent of voters rejected the amendments.
Locally, there was a shortage of paper ballots at some polls in Eau Claire yesterday. Deputy City Clerk Rebecca Draeger said a higher-than-expected voter turnout caused the shortages. No one was ever without a ballot, the clerk’s office simply sent more to where they were needed.
In all, about 33 percent of people turned out for yesterday’s election.
