Prof. Weinschenk interviews with PBS

UW-Green Bay Prof. Aaron Weinschenk (Political Science) spent some time with PBS post-election. The following is an excerpt from pbswisconsin.org:

“Aaron, do you attribute Biden’s current lead and perceived lead over Trump to be from the surge in Madison, Milwaukee and Metro areas? And did we see higher voter turnout than 2016 in other parts of the state?

Yeah, certainly seems to be the case that turnout went up substantially in places like Dane County and Milwaukee County, but I was looking at the vote totals in other parts of the state, and it seems to have gone up there as well. In Brown County, which is the county I’m currently in. There seems to be a lot more people participating. When I looked at the Western part of the state, just looking at the raw numbers of votes compared between 2016 and 2020, seems to be more people turning out to vote. I didn’t look at every single county, but it seems to be a trend of more people engaged in this election than in the last presidential election, at least.

Do you think that higher turnout is going to continue?

I think that it seems likely. Past this election, we’ll see. I think it probably depends on the perceived importance of the election and who the candidates are, but you know, this may be the boost that people need to get more involved. So I think it’s a good sign that so many people got out and participated in this election.”

And more from “Here and Now” on Friday.