Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:47 and sunset is 8:14 for 14 hours 27 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning gibbous with 84.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1790, the federal government conducts the first United States census.
Wisconsin’s primary for statewide offices is a little over a week away, on August 11. While some voters may be thinking about voting for candidates from more than one party, Wisconsin law does not allow ticket-splitting among different parties’ candidates in a partisan primary:
In Wisconsin’s partisan primaries, like the one happening Aug. 11, voters must choose a party section and only vote for candidates within that column.
On a partisan primary ballot, voters must first select which party’s primary they want to vote in.
Instructions on Aug. 11 ballot templates explain that if voters mark a party at the start of the ballot, votes cast in any other party won’t be counted.
If voters don’t make a party selection, then vote for candidates in more than one party, none of their votes will be counted.
State law requires polling places to prominently display these rules for partisan primaries.
So, if Republican voters want to strategically vote for a Democrat they think would lose to Tom Tiffany in the governor’s race Nov. 3, they forgo participating in GOP primaries for lieutenant governor, secretary of state and some state Legislature and congressional seats.
Hope Karnopp, Can you ‘cross over’ vote in multiple parties in a Wisconsin primary?, Wisconsin Watch, July 29, 2026.
These ticket-splitting rules apply to the partisan primary; voters in a Wisconsin general election would have their votes counted if they chose from among candidates of different parties (e.g., one party’s candidate for governor, another party’s candidate for a state legislative office).
Concern about casting votes across party lines, however, has diminished as both major parties have a clear gubernatorial favorite. Even thinking of crossing over to vote for candidates from more than one party is less likely, tactically, where there is one leading candidate for each major party.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Voting Locations in the City, a New Ethics Ordinance, and a Whitewater Comparative Analysis.
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