Liberal candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court seat performed far better among mail-in votes, bucking past trends

Wisconsin's elections earlier this month were odd in many ways, most notably because they took place during the coronavirus pandemic, when many other states were pushing their in-person voting back. But the fact that the election took place wasn't the only anomaly.

A New York Times analysis found that liberal jurist Jill Karofsky, who won a seat on Wisconsin's Supreme Court in an upset, significantly outperformed her opponent, the incumbent conservative Justice Daniel Kelly, when it came to mail voting. The Times reached the conclusion after looking at data from the 27 Wisconsin municipalities which separated their in-person votes from those sent by mail. In one precinct, for example, Kelly won 64 percent of the election day vote, while Karofsky took 70 percent in the mail.

The news was a shock for many political scientists, who have traditionally found that voting by mail doesn't provide much of an advantage for either party. "It's convincing and surprising that Karofsky appears have done better among mail voters than in-person voters," said Barry Burdern, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "That's a change from past trends. It's unclear if that's going to be something permanent or very something very specific to the election."

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Either way, the Times notes, the results likely won't do much to dispel the opposition to mail voting from President Trump and Republicans who worry it will enhance Democratic turnout. Read more at The New York Times.