Wisconsin Voters Prepare To Head To Polls As Many Still Undecided

Vote here sign outside a Milwaukee polling place. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The primary is tomorrow and many voters are anxious to see if their chosen candidates are going to be successful Tuesday.

WPR talked to voters in Milwaukee and Wausau about what they’re hoping for.

In Milwaukee, Mia Cotton voted early for Democratic frontrunner Francesca Hong, a Madison Assembly representative and democratic socialist.

She says she has known from the beginning that Hong is her candidate of choice.

“I was pretty positive where I was going with voting, so I wanted to get it done as soon as possible,” Cotton said.

Milwaukee resident Andy Nunemaker is also voting for Hong. It’s a decision he came to recently, but for different reasons than Cotton.

“I want Tom Tiffany to be governor,” Nunemaker said, referring to the GOP’s presumptive nominee, who faces only token opposition in the primary. “ So I’m going to vote as a Democrat in the primary for Hong, because if she gets it, he’ll be governor. It’s quite simple.”

In Marathon County, Becky Filiacho said she’s followed the governor’s race closely.

“I’m concerned that the Democratic Party just hasn’t held together as strongly as it should have,” Filiacho said. “I’m worried about (Republican) Tom Tiffany getting in.”

There were too many candidates in the Democratic field, Filiacho said, and the party didn’t do a good enough job rallying support behind the candidates they believed were the strongest.

“I think we’re all just so tired of the whole political system,” she said.

In chaotic Democratic primary, number of undecided voters is normal

Undecided in primary by days to election

Marquette University Law School released two surveys of Wisconsin voters at the end of July showing Hong had pulled away from her remaining four challengers. The latest poll found Hong with the support of 38 percent of voters and a comfortable lead over Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

But 34 percent of respondents also said they still hadn’t decided on a candidate.

Charles Franklin, who heads the poll, said Friday that while that number seems high, it is still in line with where most previous primaries have been.

“We’ve been slow to decide all year, but in the final poll we are about where most previous primaries were at the same time,” Franklin said.  The races with many fewer undecided were the 2012 recall primary and the 2012 Republican senate primary.”

Franklin noted that sometimes, undecided voters end up becoming non-voters.

That will be the case with Tom Atchison from Eagle River, who says he doesn’t plan to vote on Tuesday.

“I don’t pay as much attention this time of the year as I usually do during a presidential election so I guess yes, I am undecided,” Atchison said.

WPR reporter Avery Martinez contributed reporting.

Wisconsin voters prepare to cast ballots, even as some remain undecided was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.