Wisconsin Votes Today as Trump's Voter Fraud Conspiracy Theories Fail to Materialize

Wisconsin voters are casting ballots today in a spring election that will determine control of the state Supreme Court and fill hundreds of local offices across the state. Polls close at 8pm, and anyone in line by that time still has the right to vote.

The marquee race is for Wisconsin Supreme Court, where liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority. A liberal win today would expand that margin to 5-2, further insulating the court from the kind of election-denying pressure campaigns that defined the 2020 aftermath. Early voting numbers suggest lower turnout than last year's high-stakes Supreme Court race, when outside money poured into the state and 348,926 absentee ballots were returned—roughly double this year's total.

But the election is about more than one judicial seat. Dane County voters are deciding a circuit court race, thirteen County Board supervisor contests, two Madison school board races, and three Common Council seats. These are the races that determine who runs your schools, funds your libraries, and shapes local policy on everything from housing to public safety.

Ballot Errors Trigger Republican Theatrics

The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint Monday with the Elections Commission after more than 150 Green Bay voters received duplicate absentee ballots in the mail. The city clerk blamed the error on the rush to recover from mid-March blizzards, according to Wisconsin Public Radio, and sent letters instructing affected voters to fill out only one ballot.

What happens if someone fills out both? Exactly what's supposed to happen, according to Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe. Wisconsin's A and B ballot process ensures only one ballot per voter gets counted, even if two are returned.

"If two ballots come back, one of them is rejected because only one ballot can be checked in and actually sent to be tabulated per voter," Wolfe explained at a Monday press briefing. "All that's gonna happen as part of a public process, so the actual rejection and then sending one of the ballots to be tabulated—all that's gonna occur at the polling place or where ballots are tabulated in that jurisdiction."

In other words, the system works. Poll workers operate in bipartisan pairs, observers watch the process, and duplicate ballots are flagged and rejected in full public view. It's a well-established safeguard that kicks in when human errors occur.

A similar situation unfolded in Racine, where voters received second ballots after an uncontested race was mistakenly left off the first version. Ann Jacobs, a Democratic appointee on the Elections Commission, posted on social media Monday that both incidents were "ordinary human error, not fraud."

That distinction matters, because Republicans continue to weaponize routine administrative mistakes as evidence of a rigged system—despite zero proof that any fraudulent votes have been cast or counted.

Trump's War on Mail Voting Continues

The Republican complaint comes as Trump escalates his years-long assault on absentee voting. Last week, he issued an executive order aimed at limiting mail-in voting and creating a "verified voter list"—part of his ongoing campaign to baselessly claim that non-citizens are voting in federal elections.

The order has no impact on today's election, Wolfe confirmed. Wisconsin's photo ID requirements remain in place. Voters still state their name and address, show ID, sign the poll book, and receive a ballot. The procedures Wisconsinites are used to haven't changed.

But Trump's order is part of a broader pattern: sowing doubt about election integrity, restricting access to the ballot, and laying the groundwork to contest results he doesn't like. It's the same playbook he used in 2020, when he pressured state officials to "find" votes and incited a violent attack on the Capitol to stop certification of his loss.

Voter fraud—particularly the kind Trump obsesses over—remains vanishingly rare. Study after study has found that non-citizen voting is virtually nonexistent, and mail-in ballots are no more susceptible to fraud than in-person voting. What does exist is a coordinated effort by Trump and his allies to make voting harder, particularly for communities that tend to vote Democratic.

Counting Takes Time Because Accuracy Matters

Wolfe emphasized Monday that Wisconsin prioritizes accuracy over speed, so preliminary results may take time—especially in larger cities processing thousands of absentee ballots.

"In Wisconsin, your elections are administered by your city, town, or village clerk and there are 1,851 of them," Wolfe said. "Your poll workers who are tallying the votes—these are your neighbors, your friends, your family from your community. Don't forget to thank a local election official for all the work they do to administer fair, accurate elections in your community."

That's the reality Trump and his enablers refuse to acknowledge: elections are run by ordinary people doing painstaking work to ensure every eligible vote is counted. When errors happen, there are systems to catch them. When fraud is alleged, it's almost always a lie.

If you still have an absentee ballot, it's too late to mail it. Contact your municipal clerk about drop-off locations, which may include your polling place, the clerk's office, or a central processing facility. All ballots must arrive by 8pm to be counted.

Polls close at 8pm. If you're in line by then, you have the right to vote. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.