Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Wisconsin: Mahlon Mitchell at 52% of the vote in the LG race, voter turnout at half Gov race

The LG race had to be the single position that saw the greatest possibility of strategic voting by Republicans and recall opponents. In the Gubernatorial race, Republicans wanted to give Walker as strong a victory as possible. But, since Kleefisch was not facing a primary, The LG race was a perfect area to express their displeasure.

We can see that result in the open primary setting, as the obvious Democratic nominee, Mahlon Mitchell, received 52% of the vote. The other votes were split close to evenly between the fake/placeholder candidate (26%) and a private investigator who was not seen as much of a threat.

Note that with 95% of the total, the Governor's race had approximately double the turnout (combining both parties) as the LG race. Was it an undervote or did Republicans (and others, as the Democratic opponents of Mitchell had a limited options) simply not vote for the position.

The Democrats will spin this (if anyone cares) as Mitchell getting a clear majority of the total vote. The Republicans will take the position that there were no real Republicans on the ballot, yet Mitchell did not romp to victory, with a very low turnout. Will see what this means.

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