Polls close and waiting for results begins

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Wisconsin elections in 2018

Voters went to the polls under a mix of rain, wind, cold temperatures and, in some areas, snow.

Political careers are at stake.

Republican Governor Scott Walker is running for his third term – and his fourth victory in eight years – against Democrat Tony Evers.

US Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin faces Republican Leah Vukmir.

Much attention was paid to early voting, with the Milwaukee Electoral Commission reporting that some 45,000 mail-in ballots had been cast prior to polling day – much more than in the past. A participation rate between 60 and 70% is expected, announced the commission Tuesday.

Voting guide: Here's everything you need to know before going to the polls

Throughout the day, we heard about high turnout from all over the state and, in some places, people lining up.

Here is an overview of what we see at the polls.

Total votes at Marquette University before the last mid-term elections

7:50 p.m.

The vote went well on the campus of Marquette University in Milwaukee.

At 6:30 pm, 1,360 voters had come to the Marquette Alumni Memorial Union. That exceeded the total of the mid-term of 2014, when 1,067 voted. The participation rate in the 2016 presidential election was 2,373.

Busy day in the city of Milwaukee

6:10 p.m.

"Everyone reports that he is very busy," said Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee City Electoral Commission. "Obviously, some of the voting sites are busier than others."

He said that among the 193 polling stations in the city, the busiest ones include those in the 3rd district, including the downtown and eastern areas, as well as the northern part, Bay View and the southern part.

The city still expects a voter turnout of about 200,000 voters, including anticipated voters and absent voters, which would equate to a turnout of about 65 percent of registered voters, Albrecht said.

That number would be slightly lower than the 208,000 voters in the city of Milwaukee in 2014, but higher than the 187,000 voters in the city who voted in 2010.

Albrecht added that city electors still had proof of residency requirements.

"We had to sort out a lot of calls with voters trying to help them find what they could use as proof of residency to be able to sign up," Albrecht said. "But we also had a number of temporary voters who were not able to satisfy the photo ID requirement."

Hundreds of photo ID cards issued on polling day at UW-Madison

5:10 p.m.

UW-Madison officials have noted a steady flow of traffic to campus polls, with no significant delays or disruptions reported, according to campus spokeswoman Meredith McGlone.

At 2 pm, the university issued approximately 500 photo ID cards on polling day to students who needed it to vote. This is in addition to the 7,928 already published.

No selfies at the UW-Madison polling station

5:05 p.m.

On a bulletin board located outside the voting location inside the Memorial Union, on the UW-Madison campus, were a sample ballot, polling hours , a polling station card, a notice prohibiting firearms and this notice. "No selfies or photos inside the polling place.Do not hesitate to take pictures or selfies by the panel located on the outside."

This sign was pasted on a bulletin board outside a Memorial Union polling station on the UW-Madison campus. (Photo: Meg Jones / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Late tonight? You can still vote if you are online at the close of polls

17h

If you are late and are afraid of not having the time to vote, as long as you are online at your poll before 8 pm, you will have the right to vote.

According to the Wisconsin Electoral Commission: Voters line up to vote when the poll closes at 8 pm Polling day will be allowed to vote.

Voters lined up outside the church on the south side of early Milwaukee

4:45 p.m.

At the Divine Peace Lutheran Church south of 76th Street in Milwaukee, Pastor Paul Learman offered free candies to voters.

"We see this as a chance to serve our neighborhood and our community, and we love to be a place where people can gather and vote, enjoy a sweet going out and chat and chat," Learman said. "It's a fun way to promote the community.

"It was the first time today that 15 minutes before our opening, there was a line of 15 people outside." Fifteen minutes before our opening, there may be 1 or 2. This area is really good in terms of numbers, but we are well ahead of what we are normally.

"We had an older man, I'm sure he was 70, here voting for the first time in his life, I congratulated him, it's really great."

Vote goats: UWSP's petting zoo aims to bring young voters to the polls on Election Day

4:40 p.m.

NextGen America hosted a petting zoo at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on polling day to encourage students to vote, identifying this effort as #VoteGoats on social media. The group provided voter information kits to ensure that incoming students have enough information to register and vote.

A dozen people stood around the fence despite the rain on Tuesday afternoon to feed and take pictures of various animals, including goats, alpacas, ducks and cows.

Austyn Zarda is a field organizer for NextGen America. He added that the group wanted to reach young people in an unorthodox way and that the organization was fortunate to be able to create zoos for children.

"Who does not like animals on their campuses," Zarda said.

Logan Havens of Havens Petting Farm, in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, brought the animals to campus. "People love it," Havens said. "And the animals too."

– Caitlin Shuda, Stevens Point Newspaper

Fivethirtyeight.com projecting Wisconsin with the highest voter turnout in the country

16.30.

Wisconsin has one of the closest governor races in the country and, along with the high turnout of this state, it's no surprise that Badger State is at the top of our List of states displaying the highest expected participation rate among governors, states Geoffrey Skelley on the political website fivethirtyeight .com

The website calls for 2,787,000 Wisconsin residents out of a population eligible to vote of 4,344,000, or 62.3 per cent, who will go to the polls today. Completing the rest of the five main projected states:

Maine, participation rate of 60.9%

Minnesota, 59%

Iowa, 57.6%

Colorado, 55.2%

Steve Rose stands in front of the Memorial Library on the UW-Madison campus and carries a homemade sign. (Photo: Meg Jones / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Madison man uses his hat to encourage people to vote

4:20 p.m.

Steve Rose wore a "Vote!" Homemade They stood in front of the Memorial Library on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to encourage people to vote. He arrived at 10am and 3:40 pm said that he had planned to stay up to 4.

He also wore a blue poncho and an umbrella that kept him dry during the intermittent rains on polling day.

"Many students voted early." My line to people is: have you ever voted? And many said you did, said Rose, who retired three years ago. month.

He used a yellow paper binder to tie a Tilly hat with blue tape and scribbled "Vote!" black marker on two sides. Rose said that most students and passers-by seemed receptive and that only one person told him that he had no intention of voting.

"I do not know if I would do that in the middle of Waukesha but I feel pretty safe here," Rose said.

Strong participation in Waukesha, Wauwatosa and Oak Creek

4:05 p.m.

The vote was swift at Wauwatosa City Hall, Oak Creek Community Center and a church located in Waukesha between noon and 3 pm, traffic time but all three sites were very active . No line or delay has been reported.

Shorewood soundings packed

4:01 p.m.

Voters filled the polls in Shorewood, where more than 2,100 residents voted in Shorewood village center at 2 pm

Workers were still counting the mail ballots late in the afternoon.

Howard voting problem: more than 200 people received ballots for a bad race at the Assembly

3:48 p.m.

HOWARD – More than 200 people in the suburbs of Green Bay voted Tuesday for a candidate for assembly in the poor district – because they received the wrong ballot.

We do not know how, or even if, the problem can be corrected.

For more than an hour after the polls opened at the Green Bay Community Church on Cardinal Lane, voters living in Assembly District 4 received ballots in the District 89 and vice versa, said village clerk Chris Haltom.

Voters discovered the mistake shortly after 8 am when a voter asked why a candidate he was counting on for voting was not on the ballot, Haltom said.

He added that the village had promptly warned the state election officials and had recorded the error, but did not believe that nothing could be done to correct it.

In District 4, 173 voters received the wrong ballot. In District 89, the bad ballots were sent to 71 people.

Shorewood students hold walkout on polling day

1:47 p.m.

Forty students from Shorewood High School, mostly too young to vote, left school around 10 am and gathered on the lawn to encourage young people to vote.

Shorewood High School is one of approximately 500 schools in the country participating in the national Walkout to Vote movement.

"The higher the rate of youth participation, the more politicians are forced to listen to what we have to say and adapt accordingly," said student Megan Grizzle.

Voting Issues in Marathon County

1:33 p.m.

The first 54 people who voted Tuesday in the village of Stratford, Marathon County, received the wrong ballot. The village asks them to come back and vote again.

The village clerk, June Krueger, said that his office had contacted almost all 54 constituents and had talked to them or left messages explaining the problem and asking them to come and review their ballot.

Krueger said the ballots did not include the appropriate districts for the Senate and State Assembly races. The good ones are the 23rd District of the Senate and the 69th District of the Assembly. Due to this error, the voting machine will not accept the ballots. The village corrected the error and the No. 55 voters received a properly printed ballot. The village receives printed ballots from the Marathon County Clerk's Office.

Krueger said his associates had contacted the County Clerk's Office and the Wisconsin Electoral Commission as soon as they realized the mistake. The village staff will meet with the commission at the closing of the polls to make sure that any elector who can not return to the vote today will still count his votes, said Krueger.

If voters do not know if they are voting badly and have not yet been contacted by the village, Krueger has asked them to call 715-687-4166.

– Natalie Brophy

Madison report: "It's gone like crazy."

1:10 p.m.

The Cape Times announced that the participation rate in Madison had already exceeded that of 2014 and even the 2016 presidential election.

Elaine Staley, a chief election inspector working at the Village on Park polling station, said 90 constituents were already at the South Park Street location, Staley said it normally required day to reach this type of participation in the 73rd city of the city.

"It's gone like crazy," Staley said.

It's a bit hard to judge the turnout at Hart Park because the city has only been using the senior center for voting for a couple of elections. That said, there was a steady stream of cars pouring into the parking lot shortly after voting began.

Tim Harrington was voter No. 2 at the Hart Park Senior Center in Wauwatosa on Tuesday morning (Photo: James B. Nelson/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

At the Wauwatosa Women's Center, the line stretched up the stairs.

Betsy Metzger of Wauwatosa was looking forward to voting but with a little anxiety.

“I’m certainly more interested in local and state elections than I have been in the past,” she said. “I’m trying to be more conscious of who is running our state beyond the governor.”

Crummy weather expected statewide

Voters Tuesday should come equipped for a crummy November day, with wind and rain, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan.

Late afternoon may be the best time to avoid getting wet, the weather service said.

"The main area of rain will continue to slowly shift northward this morning into early this afternoon, with lingering showers rotating through the area," the weather service said. "Most of the precipitation should be north of the area by later this afternoon

Rain showers are expected throughout the day in the Fox Cities and north central Wisconsin, the weather service said. Voters in north central Wisconsin could see some scattered snow showers.

– Trent Tetzlaff

Strong turnout seen in Fond Du Lac County, Appleton, Green Bay

7 a.m.

Waiting for the clock to strike 7 a.m.  voters wait in line to cast their ballots Tuesday,  at the Calumet Town Hall in Fond du Lac County. About 20 people were waiting for the polls to open.