Wisconsin Presidential Primary and State Supreme Court Results
By 270toWin Staff
April 13, 2020
On April 7, Wisconsin went ahead with its scheduled presidential primary, along with a few other races, the most notable of which is the general election for a 10-year term on the State's Supreme Court. Following two court rulings, the absentee ballot deadline - for ballots postmarked by April 7 - was extended until Monday, April 13 at 4:00 local time (5:00 PM Eastern).
Results will appear below - as they become available - after 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
Democratic Primary
Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign on April 8, making Joe Biden the party's presumptive nominee. Since this was after both the in-person voting as well as the deadline for absentee ballots to be postmarked, the move won't have influenced the outcome of this race.
The state has 84 pledged delegates. Note that with Sanders withdrawal, he can no longer earn statewide delegates, per Democratic National Committee rules. We saw the impact of that in this past weekend's Alaska primary results. What would have likely been an 8-7 Biden delegate advantage ended up as 11-4 in favor of the former vice president. In Wisconsin, 29 of the delegates are statewide, so it is the remaining 55 - split across the state's 8 congressional districts - that will be allocated proportionately based on the results in each district.
Earlier Monday, Sanders endorsed Biden.
Republican Primary
On the Republican side, Donald Trump is unopposed on the ballot. He has already surpassed the 1,276 delegates needed to win renomination.
About Uninstructed Delegates: Instead of choosing a candidate on the ballot (or writing someone in), Wisconsin voters have the option to hand that decision off to delegates to the party's national convention. Any delegates allocated this way would be effectively unpledged. In 2016, the Uninstructed Delegate received less than 0.3% of the vote in either party's primary, so it is not likely to have any real-world ramifications beyond appearing on the ballot.
Wisconsin Supreme Court (General Election)
Incumbent Daniel Kelly and challenger Jill Karofsky are running for a ten-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Kelly was appointed in 2016 by former Gov. Scott Walker to complete the term of retiring Justice David Prosser.
The race is nonpartisan, but Kelly is a conservative and Karofsky - a circuit court judge - is running as a progressive. The result of this race is likely to be the most impactful of any contested in the April 7 elections.
