"This feels a lot more like a presidential election, which for some, I think it is," Lisa Wiese, the chief inspector at a polling site in a church in Madison, told the Wisconsin State Journal. "There’s a lot of excitement this election," Amy Thomas, another poll inspector, added.
During Tuesday’s primary elections, Wisconsin saw a higher voter turnout than it had in decades, with 45% of eligible voters showing up to the polls. Between 1984 and 2012, primary elections in the state saw turnouts of between 22% and 38%.
This was the first election since Wisconsin passed a new law that requires voters to present state-issued photo IDs at the polling station. Critics argue that these laws – drafted by Republican legislators – unfairly target low-income Democrat voters.
While Tuesday appears to have been a success, many polling stations still reported long wait times caused by the new law. Others were turned away for having improper identification.
"A lot of people with out-of-state IDs were struggling, and not just college students," Scott McDonnell, a clerk in Dane County, told the Wisconsin State Journal.
Voting laws have gone into effect across a number of states and appear to be having their desired effect – discouraging voters from participating. In North Carolina, House Bill 589 eliminated an entire week of early voting and imposed strict – and often confusing – regulations on when and where an individual could vote.
Arizona made national headlines earlier this month after a similar law eliminated roughly 70% of polling stations in the state and created five-hour wait times. The US Justice Department has now launched an investigation into the matter.
While Republican legislators insist these laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud, there is little evidence to suggest that measures already in place were in need of improvement.
Wisconsin Republican Glenn Grothman seemed to reveal the true nature of the voter ID laws in an interview with a local NBC affiliate.
"Well, I think Hillary Clinton is just about the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever put up," he said following the primary results, "and now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well."
In a Facebook post, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Martha Laning, responded to Grothman’s comment.
"Well, there it is – if you can’t win Wisconsinite’s votes the fair and square way, you impose voter ID to gain an advantage so you win," she wrote. "I can’t believe this is the Wisconsin I grew up in. A Wisconsin that was fair and transparent and respected every American’s right to vote. So sad!"
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) April 6, 2016
Texas Senator Ted Cruz won on the Republican side, stealing some of billionaire Donald Trump’s momentum, while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders rode his own wave of enthusiasm to victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Democratic ticket.
