2020 United States presidential election in Wisconsin

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, several states delayed their scheduled primaries and extended the vote-by-mail period. Concerns were raised by health officials, poll workers, and voters that in-person voting at the height of the pandemic would be unsafe for vulnerable individuals.[11] Governor Tony Evers (D) signed an executive order for all-mail-in election, but the order was rejected by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature.[12]

On April 2, although U.S. District Judge William M. Conley refused to postpone the election, he extended the deadline for absentee voting to April 13 (ordering clerks not to release any election data before that date).[13][14] However, on April 6, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Conley's decision, meaning that all absentee ballots must still be postmarked by "election day, Tuesday, April 7" even though it will still be acceptable for the ballots to be received by the clerks as late as April 13.[15][16] The Supreme Court of the United States "did not alter the provision in Conley's amended order which prohibits the reporting of results until April 13".[17]

Governor Evers then called a special session of the legislature to postpone in-person voting, but the session ended within minutes without action, forcing the primary to go on as planned.[18]

Despite having previously expressed the view that he would violate the law by doing so,[19] on April 6, Evers issued an executive order which, if enforced, would have postponed the April 7 elections until the tentative date of June 9.[20][21] Republican leaders immediately announced that they would challenge the order in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[20] The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Evers did not have the authority to postpone the elections, thus meaning that Evers' executive order was nullified, and that the elections would be held as scheduled on April 7.[22]

This was appealed to a federal court who sided with the Governor, and that was appealed to the US Supreme Court, which on a 5–4 vote, upheld the State court's ruling.[23]

Voting was somewhat chaotic, with people waiting in the rain for hours in some cases in masks and social distancing.[24] However, by the time the election concluded, Milwaukee Election Commissioner Neil Albrecht stated that despite some of the problems, the in-person voting ran smoothly.[25]

100% precincts reporting[30]

Incumbent President Donald Trump ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and thus received all of Wisconsin's 52 delegates to the 2020 Republican National Convention.[31]

In August 2020, the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted to keep rapper Kanye West, an independent presidential candidate, off of the 2020 general election ballot in a 5-1 decision on the basis that West's application arrived too late—arriving in person seconds after the deadline.[47]

The Commission was split along party lines in a 3-3 decision to keep Howie Hawkins, the Green Party presidential candidate off of the 2020 general election ballot.[48] Hawkins gathered 3,623 valid signatures; however, forms with 1,834 signatures had a different address for Hawkins' running mate Angela Walker. The partisan board voted only to certify the 1,789, placing Hawkins/Walker below the 2,000 signatures required to be on the ballot.[49]

Walker subsequently filed a legal petition to be included on the ballot. On September 10, 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that that election officials had to wait to mail absentee ballots until the court decided whether or not to include the Green Party on the ballot. Some municipal election commissions had already mailed out absentee ballots while others were concerned that they would miss the September 17 deadline by which Wisconsin state law required absentee ballots to mailed out to those who requested them.[50] On September 14, 2020, the court ruled that the ballots would remain as-is without Hawkins or West on the ballot stating, "given their delay in asserting their rights, we would be unable to provide meaningful relief without completely upsetting the election."[51]

Between 2016 and 2020, the number of voters in Milwaukee suburban counties voting for the Democratic presidential candidate increased.[54]

Official results by county following recount.[55][lower-alpha 152]

• Door (largest municipality: Sturgeon Bay)
• Sauk (largest municipality: Baraboo)

Trump won 6 out of 8 congressional districts in Wisconsin.

On November 6, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said: "There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results." No evidence of such "irregularities" has been provided by the Trump campaign.[57]

On November 18, the Trump campaign wired nearly $3 million dollars to the Wisconsin Election Commission in a petition for a partial recount of the 2020 presidential election results. The recount would take place in Milwaukee and Dane counties. "These two counties were selected because they are the locations of the worst irregularities", the campaign said in a release.[58]

Milwaukee certified its recount results on November 27, 2020, and led to Joe Biden gaining a net 132 votes. Dane certified its recount results on November 29, 2020, and led to Donald Trump gaining a net 45 votes. This means that, in total, the recount across the two counties led to Joe Biden increasing his lead by an additional 87 votes.

On November 30, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers certified Wisconsin's electors for Biden.[59] The following electors all cast their vote for Biden:

• Meg Andrietsch
• Shelia Stubbs
• Ronald Martin
• Mandela Barnes
• Khary Penebaker
• Mary Arnold
• Patty Schachtner
• Shannon Holsey
• Tony Evers
• Ben Wikler