So, what all are we voting on this time in Wisconsin?

Everyone’s aware of the presidential race. Most have seen something about the US Senate race. But there’s so much more at stake on November 5.

Reporters, political junkies, TV commercial schedulers. Beyond these three groups, almost any other part of the population can be forgiven if they’re not aware of the many important decisions they get to make on Nov. 5. The race for the White House—between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump—is the one about which every American is aware. And weary. But there’s so much more—and each contest, however large or small, impacts our lives in some manner.

Voting itself is actually already underway. People are returning absentee ballots or casting absentee ballots in person at their local election clerk’s office. Each clerk controls the hours when voting is available. Some will be open as late as Sunday, Nov. 3. Others may end on Friday or Saturday, so it’s best to check the Wisconsin Election Commission’s website MyVote.wi.gov to learn more.

To see how many people represent you and what districts you live in, just type your address into a different section of the MyVote website.

Instead of the usual top-to-bottom review of the ballot, let’s reverse the order so that we can appreciate the folks at the local level who keep our communities running smoothly.

Down-Ballot: County Officers

You’ll likely not see any municipal or school board posts up for grabs. That’s because they’re largely non-partisan, and those elections are held in April (with a primary in February). County officers, on the other hand, are partisan posts that come due in November. 

There’s the register of deeds who keeps your county’s paperwork organized: from birth to death records, land and lien records, plats and certified survey maps. The county treasurer manages the financial records, collects real estate property taxes, and disburses funds. The county clerk’s office is the symbolic front door of county government: taking information from the public to pass along to the proper officials, administering matters for the county board of supervisors (who are non-partisan), coordinating election activities, issuing public notices, issuing marriage documents, and much more. And each county has a district attorney who prosecutes criminal actions, violations of county ordinances, and civil offenses.

You won’t see elections for county sheriff this year; their four-year terms are up in 2026 along with state offices like governor and attorney general.

New Maps Means a Brand New Legislature

There’s always turnover in the Wisconsin Legislature—with the 99 members of the Assembly up for reelection every two years along with half of the 33 members of the Senate because they’re on staggered four-year terms—but this year’s election will bring turnover like never before because of new, fairer maps that end a Republican gerrymander that’s been in place since 2011. Many incumbents decided not to run again. Others were drawn into new districts that make their path to reelection much less certain. 

The old maps gave Republicans a massive advantage—by drawing the lines to collect a disproportionate number of votes per district compared to their actual statewide level of support. It meant Republicans had a supermajority in the Senate (22-11) and a near-supermajority in the Assembly (64-35). Now, Democrats are working with conditions that give them hope to flip enough seats to take control of one or both chambers—or at least come very close and lead to a Legislature governed closer to the middle ground on issues.

You can see state and regional maps of the new districts here.

And take a look through the rest of our Voting Guide for stories about some of the most competitive races for seats in the Legislature.

Congress: House of Representatives

Wisconsin has eight congressional districts. In a 50-50 state like Wisconsin, you might expect there to be four Democrats and four Republicans. But the old Republican-drawn lines stayed virtually unchanged, giving the GOP six members and Democrats two. There’s a chance that ratio changes in November.

In the 3rd Congressional District covering western, southwestern, and parts of central Wisconsin, Republican US Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Prairie du Chien is running for reelection for the first time and is facing a strong opponent in Democrat Rebecca Cooke of Eau Claire.

Van Orden’s brief tenure has been most notable for a post-midnight incident in the US Capitol rotunda, where he screamed obscenities at a group of US Senate pages. 

“Wake the f‑‑‑ up you little s‑‑‑‑. … What the f‑‑‑ are you all doing? Get the f‑‑‑ out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s‑‑‑],” is how one of the pages described Van Orden’s tirade to The Hill.

Van Orden has been at the center of frequent dust-ups on social media as well as other personal confrontations; and he was present on the US Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. 

The 8th District seat in northeast Wisconsin is open because of the abrupt resignation of Republican Mike Gallagher, criticized by Trump supporters as disloyal. A Trump endorsement for Tony Wied, prior owner of a chain of gas stations, gave him a primary victory over two veteran GOP legislators. Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has been at the center of the legal fight to restore women’s reproductive healthcare rights in Wisconsin, is running on the Democratic ticket.

1st District incumbent Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Janesville) is being challenged by former congressman and longtime state Assembly Democratic leader Peter Barca. And the races in the other five districts are not seen by analysts as competitive because of the heavily Republican or Democratic history of voters in each one.

Congress: US Senate

The presidential race may be the most-watched, but the US Senate race isn’t far behind. Democratic incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Madison is seeking a third six-year term and is being challenged by California bank owner Eric Hovde, a Madison-area native who has put $20 million of his own money into the race. You can find several stories about the candidates and the campaign in our Voting Guide.

Race for President

It would not be hyperbole to say that the outcome of the presidential election is going to take the country in one of two extremely different directions. Vice President Harris is seeking an extreme return to normalcy, more bipartisan legislation, and a continuation of post-pandemic economic initiatives that has given the United States the strongest recovery in the world, record job growth, and stability on the world stage to help allies fend off Russian and potential Chinese aggression. Her vice presidential running mate is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Former President Trump, meanwhile, is promising trade wars through extreme tariffs that he would dictate on his own without congressional oversight, legal action against partisan officials and the media, mass deportations that —accompanied by trade tariffs— economists have concluded would cause inflation to soar. Trump’s previous effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and statements about being a dictator “only on Day One” have people at home and around the world concerned about whether the guardrails that protected constitutional law during his first term would hold for a second. And at 78, Trump’s erratic behavior and rambling speeches also invite further scrutiny about how his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, would perform in the job if Trump were unable to finish out a four-year term that would make him America’s oldest president. 

In Wisconsin, the polls open at 7:00 a.m. on Nov. 5 and close at 8:00 p.m. Any absentee ballots must arrive at their destination by 8:00 p.m. in order to count.