Did Janet Protasiewicz outperform Tony Evers in voting in the conservative Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties?
In three conservative counties bordering Milwaukee, Janet Protasiewicz won a higher percentage of the vote in the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election than Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers won in his 2022 re-election.
Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, known as the WOW counties, typically vote for conservative candidates.
Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee County judge, won the nonpartisan April 4, 2023 election for Supreme Court. Evers, a Democrat, was re-elected Nov. 8, 2022.
Here is the percentage of the total vote each candidate received, along with the number of votes, in each county:
Waukesha
Protasiewicz: 41.8% (68,257); Evers: 39.4% (88,564).
Ozaukee
Protasiewicz: 47.6% (18,528); Evers: 44.1% (23,104).
Washington
Protasiewicz: 33.6% (17,621); Evers: 30.7% (22,698).
With 10% of the votes still uncounted, The Associated Press reported that the April 4 turnout — measured by percentage of voting-age residents casting ballots — was 36%, breaking the previous record of 34% for a spring election that doesn’t coincide with a presidential primary.
November election turnouts always exceed spring turnouts.