Tonight, incumbent conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack, as well as challengers Ed Fallone and Vince Megna, face the statewide Wisconsin electorate in the 2013 non-partisan primary for one of seven seats on the Wisconsin Supreme Court bench!
The top two candidates will advance to the April 2nd General Election.
Here's the link to the live returns, and I'll provide updates and analysis throughout the night.
Polls close at 8 P.M. Central Time
5:56 PM PT: 4 minutes until polls close in Wisconsin. Turnout is expected to be extremely low, somewhere around 10%.
6:00 PM PT: POLLS CLOSED IN WISCONSIN...we will now await returns.
6:05 PM PT: No returns in as of yet...after all, the polls just closed a few minutes ago.
6:13 PM PT: Nearly 15 minutes after polls closed, still no returns as of yet.
6:16 PM PT: Roggensack out to HUGE lead early on...0.3% of precincts reporting, Roggensack leads Fallone 69%-24%, with Megna taking 6%
6:20 PM PT: Roggensack leads narrowly in Dane County, of all places, 51%-43% over Fallone.
6:22 PM PT: 1.5% of precincts reporting statewide, Roggensack has 65%-29% lead over Fallone.
6:23 PM PT: PROJECTION: Roggensack wins one of two spots in the April 2 general election. Fallone is leading Megna by about a 4-1 margin for the second spot at this time.
6:26 PM PT: Fallone leads in one county so far: Iowa County in the southwestern part of Wisconsin, 48%-45% over Roggensack.
6:27 PM PT: 2.2% of precincts reporting, Roggensack has 65.1%, Fallone has 28%, and Megna has 6.9%
6:30 PM PT: Slightly over 6,000 votes counted with 2.2% of precincts reporting statewide...that probably means that an estimated 300,000 votes were cast in this non-partisan primary
6:33 PM PT: Kenosha County is now beginning to report: Roggensack leads there with 67.53%, Fallone is second with 24.58%.
6:36 PM PT: Roggensack breaks 70% statewide: With 4.6% of precincts reporting, she's opened up a 70.5%-24%-5.6% lead, with Fallone in second place.
6:38 PM PT: Roggensack is back down to 66.4%, with Fallone in second place with 28%. 5.7% of precincts reporting.
6:40 PM PT: Roggensack leads Milwaukee County 55.94%-40.58%, with Fallone in 2nd place.
6:45 PM PT: 9.1% of the precincts reporting, and it looks as if this is going to be an enormous display of strength by Roggensack...she's now at 67.7%, with Fallone in 2nd place at 26.8%. Fallone is leading Megna by about a 5-1 margin for 2nd place at this point.
6:47 PM PT: PROJECTION: Ed Fallone wins second spot in April 2 general election. Roggensack is currently at 68.9% of the vote with 12.5% precincts reporting statewide.
6:54 PM PT: Roggensack leads Fallone 67.5%-26.8% with 16.4% of precincts reporting.
6:56 PM PT: 18% of precincts reporting, Roggensack leads 67.6%-26.6%.
7:00 PM PT: Fallone winning Bayfield County 51.41%-40.42% over Roggensack.
7:06 PM PT: Roggensack leads Rock County with 57.85%, with part of Beloit and much of Janesville yet to report. Megna appears to be a minor candidate, so I'm just going to report Roggensack's percentages from now on. Megna is running well to the left of Fallone, so virtually all of Megna's supporters will vote for Fallone in the April 2 general election.
7:07 PM PT: 21.8% precincts reporting, Roggensack is at 67.9% statewide.
7:10 PM PT: Roggensack erroneously listed as "projected winner" on Wisconsin Vote website...even if she gets 50%+1 of the vote (appears likely she will do so) in this primary, she will face the second-place candidate (I've projected Fallone to be the second-place candidate) in the April 2 general election.
7:12 PM PT: Roggensack is at a whopping 87.88% of the vote in Washington County.
7:14 PM PT: Roggensack is now down to 60.8% of the vote with 33.5% of the precincts reporting.
7:17 PM PT: Roggensack is at 53.52% in Milwaukee County.
7:19 PM PT: In 2011, incumbent David Prosser got 55% of the vote in a four-way primary, with JoAnne Kloppenburg getting second place. Roggensack is about 5% above the "Prosser line".
7:21 PM PT: Dane County Clerk's website lists Roggensack at 35.4% of the vote with 124/196 precincts reporting.
7:27 PM PT: Roggensack and Fallone are now both listed as "projected winners" by Wisconsin Vote...51.7% precincts reporting statewide, Roggensack has 60.3% of the vote. She's still slightly over 5% above the "Prosser line".
7:28 PM PT: Roggensack has now pulled ahead in Iowa County with a 48.46% plurality.
7:28 PM PT: Roggensack has a bare majority (50.08%) in Milwaukee County.
7:30 PM PT: Roggensack is below 50% in Portage County (49.97%, to be exact).
7:30 PM PT: Racine County has yet to report anything.
7:31 PM PT: Roggensack back up to 65% of the vote with 60.8% of precincts reporting statewide.
7:42 PM PT: 66.3% precincts reporting, Roggensack at 63.5%, about 8.5% above "Prosser line".
7:42 PM PT: 67.7% of the precincts reporting, Roggensack now at 63.4%, 8.4% above Prosser line.
7:46 PM PT: Looks like Roggensack is going to get 60-65% of the vote in the primary, folks...she's currently at 63.4% of the vote with 70.2% precincts reporting.
7:49 PM PT: Counties yet to report any vote totals: Ashland, Clark, Douglas, Iron, Lafayette, Langlade, Menominee, Oneida, Price, Racine, Rusk, Sheboygan, Vilas.
7:51 PM PT: Roggensack now down to 63.2% with 72.3% reporting. That's 8.2% above the Prosser line.
7:53 PM PT: Roggensack now up to 64.1% of the vote with 76.6% of the precincts reporting.
7:55 PM PT: There's probably a lot of votes yet to be counted in Milwaukee County...Roggensack has more votes in Waukesha County than all three candidates combined do in Milwaukee County, despite Waukesha County having a considerably smaller voting-age population than Milwaukee County.
7:56 PM PT: 80.3% of precincts reporting, Roggensack down to 63.6% of the vote.
7:59 PM PT: 81.5% precincts reporting, Roggensack down slightly to 63.5% of the vote. Two hours since polls closed.
8:03 PM PT: Roggensack hovering around 63.5% of the vote, and is currently at 63.5%, 8.5% above Prosser line. 83% precincts reporting.
8:04 PM PT: Roggensack now at 62.9% with 84.4% precincts reporting.
8:07 PM PT: 85% precincts reporting, Roggensack at 63%.
8:11 PM PT: Roggensack is still at 63%, now with 86.2% of precincts reporting.
8:16 PM PT: Racine County is the only large county that has not yet reported. Expecting it to go 60-70% for Roggensack based on current trends.
8:28 PM PT: In the Republican primary in the AD-98 special election, Adam Neylon leads Ed Baumann by only 30 votes, and a recount is possible in that race, and the winner of the primary will be completely unopposed in the general election in that race. AD-98 is entirely within Waukesha County and is overwhelmingly Republican.
8:32 PM PT: Ed Baumann is comptemplating whether or not to request a recount in the AD-98 Republican primary.
8:39 PM PT: All of Racine County has apparently reported, and Roggensack got 67.36% of the vote there.
8:40 PM PT: Well, I'm logging off...Good night, everybody!