Democrats won big in Wisconsin after a liberal-leaning judge ousted an incumbent who had the support of President Donald Trump for a ten-year term on the State Supreme Court.
According to The New York Times, starting on August 1, Jill Karofsky will take her seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to begin her ten-year term. Her victory means that conservatives now hold a narrow four-to-three majority on the court.
And not only did Karofsky win, according to the report, she also took a decisive victory by some 120,000 votes as of Monday night for a seat that in the last four or so years have been decided by 30,000 votes or less.
The elections also took place amid the coronavirus pandemic of course, with decisions from the United States Supreme Court and the Wisconsin Supreme Court offering voters no leniency.
Last Monday, less than 24 hours before polls were opened, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted along ideological lines saying that the state’s primary elections will have to go forward as planned, with polling places opened for in-person voting, blocking the governor’s executive order which sought to delay the election until June.
The United States Supreme Court followed up shortly after again along ideological lines, reversing a ruling from a lower court that would have given voters six additional days to mail in their absentee ballots. Instead, the SCOTUS ruled, the ballots would have to be postmarked by election day (last Tuesday) and arrive by April 13 to be counted.
Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin Ben Wikler told the Times that several lawsuits are expected to be filed by voters who were not able to cast their absentee ballots as a result or by candidates of local races who were on the ballot.
“It was voter suppression on steroids,” Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said. “They tried to steal this election in Wisconsin.”