With decisive victories in all seven battleground states, former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes in the November 5 presidential election, securing him the White House. Trump also earned the majority of the popular vote—as of November 15, 50.1% (76,145,216) of Americans cast their ballots for Trump in comparison to the 48.2% (73,260,956) of votes for incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the presidency.
Within Wisconsin, voters also cast ballots for state offices. In the race for senate, incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin received 1,672,418 votes while Republican Eric Hovde received 1,643,302 votes, winning Baldwin another six years in office, although Hovde has questioned the integrity of the election. The simultaneous Trump and Baldwin victories were caused by split-ticketers—voters who cast ballots for candidates of different parties. Wisconsin’s exit polls suggest that the split-ticket occurred on a thin margin, with 4% of Trump voters also voting for Baldwin. Additionally, constituents reelected incumbent Gwen Moore over opponent Tim Rogers for the fourth Congressional District’s seat in the House of Representatives. Within Milwaukee, voters decided on county officials, including District Attorney and Clerk.
Wisconsinites also voted on a constitutional amendment. The Wisconsin constitutional amendment presented to voters asked: “Eligibility to vote. Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?” with a “Yes” vote indicating support for restricting voting rights to U.S. citizens only, and a “No” vote opposing the amendment. The Republican-authored measure aimed to formally establish in the state constitution that only U.S. citizens age 18 and older residing in a particular voting district may participate in elections.
According to unofficial Village data, Shorewood experienced a 90.98% voter turnout rate, with 7,633 votes for Harris, 1,438 for Trump, and 191 for third-party and alternate candidates in the presidential election.
According to Toya Harrell, Village Clerk, Election Day in Shorewood ran smoothly overall.
“[It went] extremely well,” Harrell said. “That’s because I had a lot of conversations with my chief and the communication came out from Milwaukee County and the Wisconsin Elections commission and I make sure to keep them in the loop of any updates or memos that got sent out.”
Despite its success, Harrell says that the potential for politically-charged altercations was a concern heading into the election. With this possibility in mind, Harrell prepared de-escalation measures and also ensured police presence at polling places in order to handle emergencies should they arise.
“People have a lot of concerns based on what’s on social media and what they’ve heard has happened in other cities or states, and so of course, alarm is going to be raised for what that means for Shorewood,” Harrell said. “That’s why I put together a de-escalation packet that shows the chief the best way to handle those situations should someone become irate. We also had emergency contact numbers on standby should they need it. I always assured [election inspectors] that there have been no reports of [altercations] happening in Wisconsin, let alone Shorewood. Should anything of grave concern happen, the co-chief and I have been in communication about how to deal with it.”
Harrell noted the high level of absentee voting, with a majority of voters choosing to send in ballots by mail or in-person early..
“We had close to 68% of the voter registration population vote absentee,” Harrell said. “I think that shows a great testament to the seriousness that the people of Shorewood have for voting.”
Despite a strong voter turnout, some ballots remained outstanding, which Harrell says can happen for various reasons.
“Of the ballots that we mailed out, less than 200 people did not send their ballots back, and that is an extraordinarily awesome turnout of absentee ballots,” Harrell said. “There are a myriad of reasons that [a ballot] might not get back. [People ultimately choosing to vote in person] is certainly one of the factors. Another factor could just be mail and it getting back to us. We are still receiving ballots after the election that we still have to put in the system, but it doesn’t count toward Election Day because those were sent after 8 p.m. on Election Day, so we can’t count that. I do know we did have several people that came during in-person absentee voting and said that they’d wish to vote in person. I think it was because of the angst with the postal service.”
After Election Day, the canvassing process began, a task Harrell oversaw. She says canvassers stationed at every polling place were responsible for counting ballots and reporting the results, which are then ensured for accuracy.
“[The canvassers] send me a report of all of the numbers,” Harrell said. “We have what’s called an end-of-night checklist or call list, and in that they tell me [the number of votes for each candidate]. And that’s from the results page. So, I write that down, I send that to Milwaukee County, and Milwaukee County does a check of what is on the results page to make sure it matches what we said was on the results page. After we’re done with our canvassing, we package everything up in vacuum-sealed envelopes. We take it to Milwaukee County and Milwaukee County does the canvass. So, we have a checks-and-balances system—they check the results of each municipality within the county to make sure that everything balances out. I also have to input those numbers on our databases to make sure that also checks with the results page Milwaukee sends back to me on election night. Before I leave, I post the unofficial results on our web page and they come in through Milwaukee County.”
As Harrell explains, preparation for the election process had been underway for multiple months leading up to November 5. Her team began this advanced planning to organize necessary materials and oversee necessary training of election staff. Additionally, Harrell explains that a vacant senate seat led to the necessity of an extra election, making 2024 an especially packed year.
“We usually start prepping two months beforehand to get the materials that are needed,” Harrell said. “We usually have a spring primary election, a partisan primary, and the general election; that’s a four year cycle. [This year] we had to have a special election, so we had to have a primary [for that], which narrowed down the two candidates, and then the actual special election to select the candidate. We [then] have to proof the ballot to make sure that everything is spelled correctly, that people will circle the right shape, and that it’s all consistent.”
Harrell explains the standard preparatory procedure for all Shorewood elections, which includes working closely with Milwaukee County officials. Within this process, her role as Clerk includes training and supervising Election Inspectors, as well as securing voting equipment and publicizing election-related information.
“The Chief Inspectors are two individuals per polling location that serve as the direct supervisors that day,” Harrell said. “We discuss any issues or concerns that they may have, and work out any kinks from the previous election to make sure it’s running more smoothly the next election. I [also] train election inspectors on the electronic poll book, which is called Badger Book.”
One of Harrell’s priorities was preparing for unexpected challenges, working with the County to amend them and prevent the same issues from happening in future election administrations. For example, after observing that the Badger Book wireless keyboards sometimes connected to the wrong terminal, slowing down the check-in process, she took initiative to resolve the issue.
“Usually, [the problems are] more operational, not anything that has to do with a system malfunctioning,” Harrell said. “I didn’t want that to happen for this election, so what I ended up doing was making sure that each terminal…had wired mice and keyboards so that it would not halt the process in any way, and it worked out pretty well.”
Overall, Harrell hopes voters can emerge from this election with a clearer understanding of the voting process. She has taken measures to educate Shorewood voters, including the creation of a flier outlining the life cycle of an absentee ballot, which explains the fact that absentee ballots are not counted when they are received by the Clerk, but on Election Day in accordance with Wisconsin law.
“I don’t think people really understand all that a clerk does for the election process, especially to make sure that it’s run with integrity,” Harrell said. “We do a lot to make sure that the vote is secure. … This year has been a great deal of learning for the voters, which is great. It’s good to hear from the clerk rather than how a person perceives it on social media.”
