
Here's how locals voted in the Nov. 3 election
Dems bested Republicans in every municipality
The Nov. 3 election was a stomach-churning experience for viewers at the national level, as the night came and went without any clear indication who would lead the country for the coming four years. At least 159 million Americans voted – the most in history – and the night was full of anticipation and uncertainty. In the end, it took the rest of the week for the Associated Press to formally announce that Democrat Joe Biden had won the race.
But at the local level, there were no surprises, no twists and turns, and very few early morning, bleary-eyed ballot tabulations. Here, local communities voted similarly to how they have in past elections, and clerks had the results counted within a few hours of the polls closing. Once again, people voted at a high rate, while poll workers kept things running smoothly despite the ongoing pandemic, the deluge of absentee ballots, and everything else 2020 threw at them.
In Wisconsin, where Republican Donald Trump won four years earlier, Biden appeared to win by about 20,000 votes this time. Across Dane County, one of the most deeply blue portions of this purple state, more than three quarters of voters cast their ballots for Biden. President Trump earned under 22 percent of the vote in Dane County. The margin of victory was only slightly narrower in the Village of Mount Horeb, where 4,709 ballots were cast (most of them early) and Biden took in about 69 percent of the vote. That’s one percentage point more than Hillary Clinton received four years earlier in the community.
In the neighboring Village of Blue Mounds, Biden once again received 69 percent of the vote.
Elsewhere in the greater Mount Horeb area, Biden’s lead over Trump diminished, but only slightly. In the Town of Vermont, Biden racked up 68 percent of the vote. In the Town of Primrose, Biden received 67 percent. In the Town of Perry, 67 percent of the ballots were for Biden. In the Town of Springdale, Biden won 62 percent of the ballots cast in the race. In the Town of Blue Mounds, Biden also won 62 percent of the vote.
Biden and Trump were not the only thing on the ballot last week. More than 30,000 people voted in the race for the 80th District State Assembly Seat in Wisconsin. In that race, incumbent Sondy Pope (D-Mount Horeb) won with 66.5 percent of the vote. Challenger Chase Binnie, a newcomer to politics, received just over 10,000 votes.
Republican Peter Theron’s bid to unseat Democratic incumbent Mark Pocan for the Second District Congressional seat in the House of Representatives came up short, as had his previous campaigns against both Pocan and Tammy Baldwin. Pocan earned nearly 70 percent of the vote across the district. It was a rematch of the 2016 race in which Pocan easily fended off Theron.
Despite great trepidation from some leading up to the election, officials said it went smoothly in Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin’s counting and reporting of unofficial results has gone according to law,” said Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s chief election official, early on the morning after the polls closed. “Our municipal and county clerks have worked tirelessly throughout the night to make sure every valid ballot is counted and reported accurately.”
“Today, the Wisconsin Elections Commission staff will be standing ready to assist clerks as they start the process of triple-checking the results,” she said. “This includes randomly selecting 5 percent of reporting units for voting equipment audits which must occur before results are certified as required by law on December 1.”
Four years earlier, Republicans stunned Democrats nationwide, winning the Presidency and both Houses. But at the local level, it was a very different story. In 2016, voters in the Village of Mount Horeb favored Democrat Hillary Clinton by a margin of more than two to one. Sixty-eight percent of Mount Horeb voters cast their ballots in favor of Clinton, while 32 percent voted for Trump. While that is a significant margin, it showed that Trump had more support in the Village of Mount Horeb than he did across Dane County as a whole, where Clinton earned more than 70 percent of the vote and Trump garnered only 23 percent. As was the case with Biden in 2020, Clinton also defeated Trump handily in all of the rural agricultural towns that surround Mount Horeb, including Blue Mounds, Springdale, Primrose, Perry and Cross Plains.
Election Day this year went well in the Village of Blue Mounds, according to clerk Mary Jo Michek, who said the community’s new village hall proved to be a good polling site . “It was very smooth [and] great to be in the bigger building,” she said. In Blue Mounds, 319 of the 583 ballots were cast prior to election day.
“We had two observers here from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. [on Election Day],” Michek continued. “One Democrat, one Republican. We had our first provisional voter also.”
In the nearby Town of Vermont, clerk Katie Zelle said Election Day went well, with one exception.
“Overall the day went very smoothly,” said Zelle. “We had good turnout and the one-way flow starting with the poll books outside under a tent worked really well to keep everyone moving though quickly and distanced from one another.”
The issue in Vermont had to do with a ballot sent in from overseas.
“For the last several elections I have called the post office in Mount Horeb to ask if there are any absentee ballots that have arrived that I can come pick up from Mount Horeb on election day, so that they arrive on time,” Zelle explained on the day after the election. “I called yesterday afternoon and they said there were none, but would call if any came in. Today, when the mail arrived we had one absentee ballot. It arrived in the US through the DPO (Diplomatic Post Office) AE which means Armed Forces in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada, and was postmarked Oct 28. The digitally printed postmark that I believe would have been placed in Milwaukee is Nov 2.”
“The ballot can’t be counted under Wisconsin’s rules,” said Zelle. “I even called the Wisconsin Elections Commission to make sure there weren’t exceptions for Military and Diplomatic mail. There are not.”
In the Town of Springdale, 1,446 people voted, meaning turnout was in the high 90s. “The election was great,” said clerk Jackie Arthur, calling it “a very impressive turnout in Springdale.”
In the Town of Primrose, clerk Ruth Hansen said turnout was 91 percent. “It went very smoothly,” Hansen said. “I had so many people offer to help that we were able to have a dedicated ‘absentee ballot crew,’ and someone was also always available to help with voter registrations.”