Name: Trump vs. Biden: All eyes on Midwest ‘Blue Wall’ battlegrounds
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Trump vs. Biden: All eyes on Midwest ‘Blue Wall’ battlegrounds

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneNov 04, 2020 at 11:43 pmA determination on whether critical Midwestern battleground states would fall to President Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden promised to stretch into the early morning hours Wednesday — if not longer — as election officials worked to tally a record number of early votes cast in the midst of a pandemic.Biden won deep blue Illinois and held onto Minnesota for Democrats while Trump took reliably red Indiana and repeated GOP wins in Ohio and Iowa. The outcomes, however, were not final late Tuesday in two critical bricks in the Democrats’ “blue wall” — Wisconsin and Michigan.The vote counting came particularly slow in Wisconsin and Michigan, where state laws did not allow officials to begin counting early and vote-by-mail absentee ballots until Election Day. In both states, ballots cast on Tuesday were counted first — votes that were expected to favor Republicans who turned out to the polls in higher numbers on Election Day. Early and absentee ballots counted later were expected to break for Biden as a larger share of Democrats voted early and by mail.With 78% of the expected vote in Wisconsin counted late Tuesday night, Trump led Biden, 51.7% to 46.8%. With 55% of Michigan’s vote tallied, Trump led 54% to 44%.In Minnesota and Iowa, where officials could start counting absentee ballots before Election Day, Biden got out to an early lead as the campaigns waited for Tuesday’s votes to be counted. As the night wore on, The Associated Press declared Trump the winner in Iowa while Biden secured a victory in Minnesota.And in Ohio, Trump was on his way to a victory with most of the state’s expected votes counted late Tuesday.Four years ago, Trump’s razor-thin upset wins in Wisconsin and Michigan delivered him the presidency. He entered Election Day , with FiveThirtyEight’s polling average showing Trump down 8 points and .But Trump never led a Wisconsin poll four years ago and led in few Michigan ones. Pollsters, however, have said they expect their surveys to be around, with less volatility in the electorate, fewer undecided voters and a better understanding of Trump’s strong support among non college-educated white voters.In Minnesota, Trump sought to flip a state he narrowly lost by 2 points to Hillary Clinton four years ago, but the final polling average there by 9 points. In and , Biden had forced Trump to play defense in states he won four years ago, with final polling averages showing Trump leading in each by a single point.Nationwide, cast ballots before Election Day, either at early voting sites or by mail. That accounted for nearly three-quarters of the total vote cast in 2016.“We’re going to have more people vote this year than at any time in American history,” Biden told voters through a megaphone in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon. “Turnout has been incredible.”In a visit to a Republican campaign office in Virginia, Trump also expressed optimism that his supporters would turn out in big numbers on Tuesday, pointing to the large crowds his rallies had drawn during the campaign’s final days.“We’ve had incredible rallies, incredible times,” Trump told campaign workers Tuesday. “I’m hearing we’re doing well all over. … We’re going to have a great night.”In Illinois, with 78% of the state’s expected vote reporting, Biden led Trump 54% to 43% to pick up the state’s 20 electoral votes. In Indiana, with 75% of the expected vote counted, Trump led Biden, 59% to 39%, enough to win the state’s 11 electoral votes.Elsewhere in the Midwest, varying state laws about how the record number of early and absentee ballots could be counted was expected to impact how quickly results would be available.Some states such as Ohio, Minnesota and Iowa have laws that allowed mail-in absentee ballots to be tabulated before Election Day. But in Michigan and Wisconsin, the law does not allow for early votes to be tallied until the polls opened on Election Day.In Wisconsin, more than 1.9 million people voted early — 65% of the total turnout in the 2016 election. Of that number, 1.275 million voted absentee while 649,000 others voted early in person.Since those 1.9 million early ballots could not be counted until starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, local election officials in many jurisdictions predicted results would not be available until the early morning hour Wednesday, if not later.“We do live in an environment where everyone seems to want instant gratification, and we have the most secure and the latest technology available,” said Milwaukee County Clerk George Christianson. “But at the same time, elections are about getting things right, not getting things fast. And that’s what’s important.”In 39 Wisconsin municipalities, including Milwaukee, the early votes were required to be counted at a single facility — and state law does not allow for any of those results to be reported until all of those ballots have been counted.In Milwaukee County, a Democratic stronghold, more than 345,000 early votes had to be processed. Julietta Henry, director of the Milwaukee County Election Commission, said officials likely would not be done counting the record number of absentee ballots until sometime between 3 and 6 a.m. Wednesday.In the city of Milwaukee alone, election officials had to count 175,000 early ballots with a dozen machines that can process between 1,200 and 2,000 ballots per hour. Three shifts of 400 workers were scheduled to process the ballots in the state’s largest city, officials said.The practical result of early votes taking longer to count meant that the results reported across the state earlier Tuesday from in-person voting precincts were likely to skew more Republican. Polls have shown a strong majority of GOP voters preferring to cast their ballots on Election Day while two-thirds of Democrats have said they prefer to vote early.In suburban Waukesha County, a traditional GOP stronghold where Biden has tried to cut into Trump’s base, County Clerk Meg Wartman said she expected to have all ballots counted by 3 a.m. Wednesday.“We’ll be here until the bitter end,” Wartman said. “It’s like having a baby, and we’ll be in labor all day — and we didn’t have a gender reveal party.”In Dane County, home to the blue-vote bastion of Madison, more than 250,000 absentee ballots had been cast — more than 80% of the ballots cast four years ago.In the final days of the election, Wisconsin officials were urging voters to bring their absentee ballots to local drop boxes after the all mail-in ballots in the state had to be received by the close of polls on Election Day. A lower court had extended that deadline in state law until Nov. 9 if the ballots had been postmarked by Election Day, but the Supreme Court overruled that decision.In Michigan, it was a similar story.Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that all mail-in ballots had to be received by Election Day, overturning a lower-court ruling that allowed for a 14-day extension so long as the ballot was postmarked by Nov. 3. That led Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to encourage all voters to return their absentee ballots in person during the race’s final days.For those who had mailed their ballot, Benson encouraged them to track online whether it had been received yet. If it had not yet been received by Tuesday, she encouraged those Michiganders to go vote in person since their mail-in ballot likely would not be counted if it hadn’t arrived by Election Day.On Tuesday afternoon, Benson of all requested absentee ballots already had been returned. In Michigan, early and mail-in votes accounted for roughly 58% of the total number of votes cast in 2016.Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law this year that allowed local election officials in the state’s largest cities to begin processing — though not count — absentee ballots the day before the election. Still, Benson warned it could be several days after the election before the final results are known in Michigan.Results were coming in quicker in the three other Midwestern battlegrounds — Iowa, Ohio and Minnesota.In Ohio, absentee and early ballots received by Election Day were tabulated quickly, followed by the reporting of in-person ballots. With more than 90% of the state’s expected vote reporting Tuesday night, Trump led 53% to 45% with NBC and CNN calling the race for the president.In Minnesota, state law allows election officials to begin counting early and absentee ballots two weeks before the election leading to results being reported faster. As such early votes expected to break heavily for Biden were counted first while votes cast on Tuesday expected to favor Trump were expected to take longer.But with 74% of Minnesota’s expected vote reporting late Tuesday, the Associated Press called the race for Biden, with 53% of the vote to 44% for Trump.In Iowa, lawmakers passed a law this year allowing for absentee ballots to be processed beginning on the Saturday before the election. That also led to early votes being counted ahead of ballots cast on Tuesday.With 96% of Iowa’s expected votes counted late Tuesday, Trump had been declared the winner with 53% to 45% for Biden.Twitter Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneNov 04, 2020 at 11:43 pmA determination on whether critical Midwestern battleground states would fall to President Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden promised to stretch into the early morning hours Wednesday — if not longer — as election officials worked to tally a record number of early votes cast in the midst of a pandemic.Biden won deep blue Illinois and held onto Minnesota for Democrats while Trump took reliably red Indiana and repeated GOP wins in Ohio and Iowa. The outcomes, however, were not final late Tuesday in two critical bricks in the Democrats’...

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Bill Ruthhart

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Trump vs. Biden: All eyes on Midwest ‘Blue Wall’ battlegrounds

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