Some new polls show President Trump closing the gap in Wisconsin.
An Atlas Intel poll conducted between October 29-30 found President Trump leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, 49.6%-48.5%. The AtlasIntel poll found that Trump garnered 17% of the black vote and a whopping 41% of the Hispanic vote.
#NEW Wisconsin Poll:
Trump 50% (+1)
Biden 49%AtlasIntel (LV, 10/29-30)
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) November 1, 2020
Other polls recently conducted in the state show Biden maintaining a lead, though by less of a margin than previous surveys. Trafalgar’s most recent poll gives Biden a 1-point edge, while a Susquehanna poll released Saturday gives him a 3-point advantage. Real Clear Politics’ average of the polls in Wisconsin still gives Biden a solid 6-point advantage. A recent NYT/Siena poll shows Biden ahead by 10 points.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on Friday, “As of Friday, more than 1.7 million absentee ballots have been cast in Wisconsin, far surpassing previous records. That includes about 1.2 million mail ballots and more than 540,000 in-person early votes, which count as a form of absentee voting. To count the absentee ballots, poll workers must announce who cast each ballot, check his or her name off a poll list, open the ballot envelope, unfold the ballot and feed it into a tabulator. If the machine can’t tally the ballot because of the way it was folded or some other reason, poll workers must try to fix the error.”
Earlier this week, The Daily Wire reported that the GOP won a victory vis-a-vis the state:
America’s highest court sided with Republicans on Monday to prevent Wisconsin from counting mailed ballots received after Election Day. The court refused to reinstate a lower court order that would have allowed for ballots to be counted even if they were received up to six days after Nov. 3 as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. A federal appeals court put that order on hold, sending it to the Supreme Court, which voted 5-3.
With COVID-19 cases rising in the state, Democrats had claimed that extenuating circumstances require that the state extend the time period to count ballots. Republicans objected, arguing that voters can vote early and have plenty of time to cast their ballots before and during Election Day.
“In Monday’s order, a majority of the justices agreed with the appeals court, with John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh writing separately to emphasize that federal courts should not be making last-minute changes to state election rules. Monday’s decision is in line with previous Supreme Court orders during the pandemic. The conservatives generally reject efforts by lower court judges to change election rules or extend deadlines in the run up to the election, saying such decisions are for state election officials and legislatures,” CBS News reported.
“Donald Trump’s presidential victory in Wisconsin, the first time a Republican candidate has won the state’s electoral votes since 1984, was the result of a complex shift in voting patterns in counties both large and small. Trump received just over 27,000 more votes than Clinton, out of more than 2.94 million cast overall. Wisconsin’s turnout was about 66 percent of all eligible voters, reported the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the state’s lowest since 1996,” Wiscontext.org noted, adding, “Voter turnout was down overall in 2016 compared to previous elections, but not evenly across the state. Turnout was up or even compared to the 2012 election in several counties. However, turnout was down quite a bit in Wisconsin’s only major city and much of its suburbs, which house a large portion of the electorate.”