the bossman
Superstar
Special election day
The special elections in Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional Districts will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 7 p.m. ET in the 6th District and 8 p.m. ET in the 1st District.What’s on the ballot?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tuesday’s special elections to replace Florida’s Republican former U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz will be held in two of the state’s GOP strongholds, but Democrats hope that strong fundraising in both districts is an indicator the races will be more competitive than they were in the last election just five months ago.Control of the U.S. House is not at stake, but the outcome of the special elections could give congressional Republicans some breathing room in the narrowly divided chamber. Republicans hold 218 seats, the minimum needed for a majority in a fully seated House. Democrats hold 213 seats, with two additional vacant seats most recently held by Democratic lawmakers.
Who gets to vote?
Any voters registered in the 1st and 6th Congressional Districts may vote in the special election in their district.What do turnout and advance vote look like?
As of March 3, Florida’s 1st Congressional District had nearly 566,000 active registered voters, about 55 percent Republicans and 21 percent Democrats. The 6th District had about 559,000 active registered voters, about 49 percent Republicans and 26 percent Democrats.Turnout in the Jan. 28 special congressional primaries was about 17 percent of registered Republicans in the 1st District and about 15 percent in the 6th District. Democrats did not have competitive primaries in those districts.
Voter participation tends to be much higher in presidential general elections than in elections held at other times. In the 2024 general election, turnout was about 76 percent of registered voters in the 1st District and about 80 percent in the 6th District.
About 73 percent of voters from counties that make up the 1st and 6th Districts cast their ballots before Election Day in the 2024 general election. In the 2022 general election, about 56 percent of voters from counties included in the 1st District voted before Election Day, compared with about 60 percent for voters from counties in the 6th District.
As of Thursday morning, about 53,000 ballots had been cast in the 1st District, about 52 percent from Republicans and about 35% from Democrats. In the 6th district, nearly 71,000 had been cast, about 45 percent from Republicans and 40 percent from Democrats.
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Wisconsin:
The Wisconsin Spring Election will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.
What’s on the ballot?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wisconsin’s spring election on Tuesday for state Supreme Court, state schools chief and a proposed constitutional amendment requiring photo ID for voting will be the first major indication of the state’s political climate since Republican Donald Trump recaptured the White House in November.Trump edged Democrat Kamala Harris in Wisconsin by just 0.86 percentage points, the tightest margin of any state. That narrow win, as well as a highly competitive 2023 state Supreme Court contest, could foreshadow the possible paths to victory for this year’s statewide campaigns.
READ MORE: What you need to know about Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race
In the state Supreme Court race, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel look to replace outgoing Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, the court’s longest-serving member, who announced last April that she would not seek a fourth 10-year term. Wisconsin Supreme Court seats are officially nonpartisan, but voters as well as the state’s party establishments routinely rally behind certain candidates based on their judicial philosophies and records.
Who gets to vote?
Any registered voter in Wisconsin may participate in the election on Tuesday.What do turnout and advance vote look like?
As of March 1, there were more than 3.8 million active registered voters in Wisconsin. Voters in the state do not register by party.About 1.8 million votes were cast in the 2023 spring election for state Supreme Court. That was 51 percent of registered voters and roughly 40 percent of the voting age population at the time. About 25 percent of voters cast their ballots before Election Day. As of Thursday, more than 475,000 ballots had been cast before Election Day.
In the Feb. 18 primary, nearly 469,000 voters cast ballots in the race for superintendent, which was 12 percent of registered voters and roughly 10 percent of the voting age population at the time.
