1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 You 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000 You 3 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000 You 4 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 You 5 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 You 6 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,000 You 7 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,000 You 8 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,000 You 9 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,000 You 10 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000 You 11 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,000 You 12 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,000 You 13 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 After Sarah Rodriguez drops out of the race for governor, David Crowley drops back in. 14 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000 We know Tony Eva supports him. We don't know yet what voters think. 15 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 This is inside Wisconsin politics. 16 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:40,000 I'm Sean Johnson here with my colleagues, Anya Van Wegndong, Zach Schultz, and Rich Kramer in Eau Claire. 17 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,000 Hey everyone. 18 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:57,000 So this race is pure chaos now wouldn't you say? I mean when you think about it just last week we were talking about Sarah Rodriguez's campaign sort of teetering shortly after it fell and then almost immediately you had David Crowley who had been out of the race get back in. 19 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Get back in. Anya why did David Crowley take that step so quickly after Sarah Rodriguez dropped out? Why did it need to be him in this race? 20 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:24,000 I mean it's a really great question and I think we're kind of trying to hammer down exactly what that eight-day calculus kind of was so he dropped out he backed Sarah Rodriguez a couple days later she made this announcement that there were issues with her campaign but she was going to stay in and I spoke to him a little bit ago and his timeline 21 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:39,000 of events is essentially that she informed him what was going on. He reiterated his support for her campaign, started hearing from backers all week that they wanted him back in that essentially there was different information than what he had dropped out on. 22 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:44,000 And we started hearing from sources that maybe he was going to get back in with the finance deadline. 23 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:55,000 Never heard back from him when I directly asked this last week and then we started to hear the rumblings on Friday as Sarah announced that she was dropping out that he was going to announce the next day and then we kind of got that confirmation. 24 00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:11,000 So it really was almost a trading of who was going to be potentially this front runner. The other thing that of course came with his announcement was Governor Tony Evers endorsing him and so that he suddenly became the sort of person who was tied to that administration in this race. 25 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Yeah, I don't feel like you can talk about the Crowley candidacy without talking about Governor Tony Evers in that decision. Zach, why did Tony Evers who has told us repeatedly throughout this primary cycle, I'm not going to get involved. 26 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,000 Why did he get involved now and why did he say David Crowley is my guy? 27 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:35,000 Well, he always the second half of the statement of I'm not going to evolve is that I might decide later and that always felt like keeping the back door open but unlikely to be used. 28 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Well, he went through the back door. He definitely did. He played his Euchar card as his last his last Jack in the hole for that. 29 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:53,000 The reason why seems only can be that he and others that think like him are not happy with Francesca Hong in the lead she has throughout this entire race. 30 00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:00,000 All the polling, including the stuff we're going to talk about later in this very show shows that she is a clear front runner for the Democratic primary. 31 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:11,000 And really there's been no ability for anyone else to centralize all of the support for the centrist, moderate Tony Evers air to take over that position. 32 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,000 We had heard that Evers and Crowley got along that they liked each other. 33 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,000 How much of that personal relationship matters we don't know and matters a lot in politics. 34 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000 Sarah Rodriguez clearly had that position even without the endorsement. 35 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:36,000 So Tony even could say I'm not the kingmaker here. Clearly him stepping in is that he felt he needed to use some of his political capital to try and boost someone to take on Francesca Hong and make it a two person race. 36 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:43,000 Yeah, Rich, we've been kind of hinting at that that Hong Diamond dynamic all campaign cycle. 37 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,000 But until now, Democrats hadn't been out there saying it. 38 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:53,000 You covered the Crowley announcement this past Saturday. He's saying it now. 39 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Yeah, I mean, he didn't name her when he announced, but it was pretty obvious who he was talking about. 40 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:12,000 He referenced the Republican Governors Association, the RGA, putting up ads that it says are attacking her, but Democrats feel that it's actually boosting her 41 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:17,000 and aimed at trying to get her to clear the Democrats' nomination. 42 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:24,000 So he mentioned that and it's pretty obvious what's going on here. 43 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:29,000 So what does this say about what Tony Evers thinks about the rest of the field, Anya? 44 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:36,000 Well, I think it was a bit of a dance that he needed to be doing because he does have relationships with everybody else in the field. 45 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:43,000 So obviously it was his current lieutenant governor who stepped out, Sarah Rodriguez, but his former lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, is in there. 46 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:51,000 His former DOA secretary, Joel Brennan, and then Calder Roy's, who's been in the legislature alongside him for quite a number of years. 47 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:58,000 David Collin, in some ways, is actually the person he has the least professional relationship with, just because David operates at the county level. 48 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:03,000 He's not in the state legislature quite as much, so they haven't necessarily worked. 49 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,000 He hasn't served in the administration, I guess I should say. 50 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:14,000 And so it's interesting that this is the person that he's choosing to back because he does have, you know, as you say, he pulled the one card that he kind of has. 51 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:20,000 And he's putting it behind this person who dropped out, who had said that he didn't have the finances, who said he didn't have the path. 52 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:27,000 And so Tony Evers is saying, both I back this person, I back his politics, and I think I can help him get that path. 53 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,000 I will say, if you just walk back a few years, David Crowley used to be a legislative staffer. 54 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:39,000 The governor's chief of staff used to be a legislative staffer who was called David Crowley a friend, and she is influential in the governor's office. 55 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:46,000 So there's possible that he was getting advice there that David Crowley is a good candidate. 56 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 So what's the theory of how this works out, though, Zach? 57 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:55,000 I mean, the governor's office and Crowley are going into this thing thinking, we're going to take this big risk. 58 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,000 They must think they can win. How does it work? 59 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:04,000 That's a good question. And we have seen how quickly the dynamics in this race can change on the ground. 60 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:11,000 We have seen candidates rise and fall according to finance reports, according to polling, candidates dropping out, coming back in. 61 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:18,000 Things are happening rapidly. And one thing, it feels like it's really close to this primary election, because ballots have already been returned. 62 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:24,000 The Democratic Party is worried about people not being able to spoil those ballots if they backed someone who's dropped out. 63 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:30,000 And there's still a long way to go, though. There's still a couple of weeks, there's more polls, there's a lot more ad spending. 64 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:36,000 And as we're going to explain, there was actually an incident that happened in Madison last night with the police that involved shooting. 65 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:44,000 These kind of things shake up races in a big way by putting candidates in difficult positions to see how they react, and they are judged according to that. 66 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:50,000 Yeah, we do want to acknowledge that shooting people are reacting to that shooting that took place Wednesday. 67 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:54,000 There's a vigil tonight or Thursday as we record this. 68 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:59,000 This is going to be a thing. You've already seen the candidates react to some very strongly. 69 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,000 It's going to affect the race. We're just going to take a pause here and wait for more information to learn more about this. 70 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:12,000 Before we talk about it in this setting, Rich, turning to something very explicitly political. 71 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:17,000 The Marquette poll came out this week. We've been looking forward to this for a while. 72 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,000 The last time Marquette polled on the race for governor was in March. 73 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:27,000 So why did this one that we've been kind of marking on our calendar seem so incomplete? 74 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:31,000 You're saying we marked the Marquette poll on our calendars? 75 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:41,000 I mean, we might have. It's because it is incomplete. It's not a full picture, but it's through no fault of the pollsters, who I'll mention in a second. 76 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:48,000 But the questions went out to Wisconsin voters between July 8th and the 16th. 77 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:55,000 Well, July 8th is when the things kind of got crazy in the primary. 78 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:03,000 Crowley had dropped out on July 8th when the questions were out, so he wasn't included in the results that we saw. 79 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:15,000 And also the poll asked about Rodriguez. Her information was included, but she ended her campaign essentially right after they got the data back from their surveys. 80 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:23,000 So it's still good information. Still gave us a sense of where things are at, at least among those that were included in the poll results. 81 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:32,000 But it's just a partial picture. So I wanted to give a shout out to pollster Charles Franklin, who I know watches this podcast. 82 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:41,000 And we all really appreciate the work that Charles and the rest of his team do. 83 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:52,000 And I think we can sympathize, at least I can, that we've all been in a position where we're writing a story or we just published a story only to have the news change and essentially make that story. 84 00:09:52,000 --> 00:10:00,000 You know, totally outdated and you have to start from scratch. So it's like throwing darts at a moving target. It's pretty tough. 85 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,000 So kudos to them for doing what they could. 86 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:07,000 Rich Kramer looking to boost his approval rating with Marquette's pollster there with a shout out. 87 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:12,000 So let's take a look at those results real quick. The Canada 2 remain in the race. 88 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:18,000 This is when you don't include David Crowley and you don't include the voters who picked Sarah Rodriguez. 89 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Francesca Hong leads the pack with 27% followed by Mandela Barnes with 18 Joel Brennan with five. 90 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:29,000 Kaldor is with two and 48% undecided. 91 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:37,000 So Francesca Hong leads the field. This is the third Marquette poll that she's done that in this year. 92 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,000 Does she have this locked up? 93 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:47,000 I mean, I think if she had it locked up, we wouldn't be seeing the deck shuffling that we keep seeing because she does very well in these polls. 94 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:55,000 She has a very energetic base of support and yet she doesn't have the power players kind of unifying behind her because they keep trying to find an alternative. 95 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:07,000 I think if she, you know, had it locked up, so to speak, there would be a confidence from the sort of democratic authorities, the democratic kingmakers that would say that she can win both the primary and win the general. 96 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:12,000 And I think we are seeing maybe implicitly more than explicitly a real concern that she can't. 97 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:16,000 And so who can they kind of bring in in order to beat Tom Tiffany? 98 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,000 And so she does very well in a democratic poll. 99 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:25,000 Although again, I think we also have to talk about that 48% undecided number, but can she do all in a general? 100 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,000 That's sort of the big question that Democrats are very worried about. 101 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:29,000 Yeah, let's talk about that. 102 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:35,000 48% nearly half of the people, half of the democratic voters who responded to this saying, I don't know how I'm going to vote for. 103 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:40,000 Zach, what's the deal? We've been doing podcasts about this rate all summer. 104 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,000 Why are so many people not sure about this? 105 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,000 What we thought would be going to be a very high profile race for governor? 106 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:52,000 Because those 48% make up a lot of people who don't watch this podcast so they are not as informed. 107 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,000 There are a lot of people who don't pay attention to politics until the very end. 108 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:01,000 I just got the first campaign flyer in my mailbox this morning. 109 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:02,000 They're starting to come. 110 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:04,000 Those people will follow along. 111 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:09,000 Another thing that happens in primaries pretty regularly is people wait to see if there is a front runner. 112 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,000 They don't like to waste their vote on someone who will not win. 113 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:17,000 Or they're going to say, well, I like this person, but they're in fourth place and they're not polling very high. 114 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,000 Why would I throw it behind them? 115 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:20,000 Who's my next favorite? 116 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,000 Which is another good thing the Marquette poll does. 117 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:23,000 They do. 118 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Who is your next favorite in line? 119 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:28,000 Another thing to look at is Tom Tiffany's unopposed and Republican primary. 120 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,000 There's still 30% undecided there. 121 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:33,000 They're going to vote for the Republican. 122 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:38,000 But I think you can take that 30%, put it over and compare it to the 48% for the Democrats and go, 123 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,000 okay, there's just a lot of people that either aren't tuned in yet, 124 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,000 or they're waiting to the last minute to figure out who is actually the front runner. 125 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:49,000 Who do I trust to be the candidate for my favorite party? 126 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:53,000 A large portion of Wisconsinites have just been living their lives this year. 127 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:54,000 It turns out. 128 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,000 Who knows to them? 129 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:03,000 So what about the candidates who are toward the bottom of this polling? 130 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:10,000 Joel Brennan and Kilda Royce, Brennan at 5%, Royce at 2%. 131 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,000 Where does that leave them? 132 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,000 Rich, I'll go to you first. 133 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:17,000 What do you think? 134 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:22,000 Well, I mean, it leaves them in the position that they've been in for a while. 135 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,000 They're just towards the bottom of the heap in terms of the polling we've seen. 136 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:31,000 So ultimately, they and their supporters and their donors have decisions to make, 137 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:36,000 whether they stay in the race or whether they drop out and endorse someone like a Crowley 138 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,000 or a Hong or a Barnes or whoever. 139 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:43,000 So, you know, I've never been in that position. 140 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,000 I don't know what all you have to think about. 141 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:51,000 They've clearly invested a lot of time and resources into their races thus far, 142 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,000 so maybe they won't drop out. 143 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:58,000 But at some point, you would think that those are conversations happening within the campaigns. 144 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,000 It seems like they are saying we have money. 145 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:08,000 And if, you know, sharing their own internal polling, if voters get to know us, they like us. 146 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:12,000 And so a lot of race left to run from their point of view. 147 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:17,000 Joel Brennan is actually running probably the most negative ads I've seen in the primary 148 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:23,000 where he lists all the sort of front-runner candidates and explains kind of explicitly 149 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,000 why they can't win in November. 150 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:30,000 His words, Anya, I mean, what's going on with Joel Brennan's decision there? 151 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:32,000 Yeah, I mean, you're right. 152 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:34,000 I think it is a kind of tonal shift. 153 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:37,000 We've talked about some of these, you know, attacks on social media, 154 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,000 but this is a really kind of negative ad. 155 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:46,000 It has the, you know, the color tint over the, like, the opponents that you normally kind of see more in a general. 156 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:52,000 And I think it goes to this kind of game that voters tend to play in competitive primaries 157 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,000 in such a swing state, like Wisconsin, where, again, you are not taking for granted 158 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,000 that the winner of a primary is going to win the general, as might happen in other states, 159 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:03,000 where Democratic voters right now are, like, playing 3D chess. 160 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,000 They are not just trying to identify who is the candidate that I support, 161 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,000 but who is the candidate that my neighbors are going to support? 162 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,000 And so, therefore, how can I make sure to kind of get the most out of my vote? 163 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,000 And so he's speaking to that electability question 164 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:20,000 and essentially saying, I am the most electable, and then when you do have 48% undecided, 165 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,000 there's maybe an argument to be made or he's trying to make the argument of, like, 166 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000 well, what would happen if all 48% of them went to me, right? 167 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:28,000 That's a lot of extra voters. 168 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:34,000 So, yes, he's now 3% to Fran Hong's, you know, 27% to Mandela Barnes's 18%, 169 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,000 but if he gets half of those undecideds, he's a front runner. 170 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,000 And so maybe he's kind of banking on that. 171 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:40,000 There you go. 172 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,000 Marquette did look at, well, they looked at a lot, 173 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,000 but they had some head-to-head match-ups in there. 174 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:48,000 If you look at those, you get a slightly different story. 175 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,000 Of the Democrats in the race right now, not including David Crowley, 176 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,000 only Mandela Barnes defeats Tom Tiffany in head-to-head match-up 177 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,000 by a 44% to 40% split among registered voters. 178 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,000 Tiffany leads Francesca Hong 43% to 40%. 179 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:10,000 So, a plus four for Mandela Barnes, minus three for Francesca Hong. 180 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,000 Zach, I mean, I think it kind of begs the question, 181 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:18,000 why did the establishment not rally around Mandela Barnes? 182 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000 I think that's the question Mandela Barnes's campaign is asking 183 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:25,000 and saying you might have made a mistake if you are looking for a Hong alternative. 184 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,000 That's certainly what they are pushing right now. 185 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:32,000 But I think one of the distinctions is Barnes came in with the most name recognition 186 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:37,000 of everyone due to his 2022 U.S. Senate run, his close loss to Ron Johnson. 187 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,000 And it was always a question because he also had the highest negatives 188 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:44,000 that came with that hangover from that election. 189 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:47,000 And he started running this race as the front-runner. 190 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,000 He introduced himself as saying, I'm the one to take on Tom Tiffany. 191 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,000 He did the thing where he ignores the rest of the field and kind of pretends they weren't there. 192 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000 And then part way through this election, I think he or his campaign realized, 193 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,000 oh, no, Francesca Hong is there. 194 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000 I do have to take her seriously. 195 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,000 So he kind of had to shift his tone to talking about his competitors, 196 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:08,000 where I think at first he was running the 2022 U.S. Senate primary, 197 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:12,000 where all of his competitors dropped out at the end and he basically had the field to himself. 198 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 That didn't happen. 199 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,000 So it is a question of did the rest of the field say you've had your chance 200 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,000 and you couldn't make your case. 201 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,000 Now we're going to go with someone else. 202 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,000 Or is it simply that they think Harry's negatives are too high 203 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:26,000 despite the head-to-head matchup looking good? 204 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,000 So it is a legitimate question for Evers. 205 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,000 It's a legitimate question for voters out there. 206 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,000 How should they take all these different pieces of information? 207 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:39,000 And that's what happens when you have this many centrist or moderate candidates 208 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,000 all trying to claim that one mantle is they can divide the field, which is what they're doing. 209 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:50,000 And now Mandel Barnes is attacking the establishment, which was definitely his friend four years ago. 210 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:56,000 We should talk real quick before we wrap up here today about what happens 211 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:01,000 with all these tens of thousands of voters who cast absentee ballots 212 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,000 and maybe want to change those ballots. 213 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,000 A short answer, can they? 214 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:08,000 No. 215 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:11,000 Well, not at this moment. 216 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:12,000 Yeah. 217 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,000 According to Wisconsin Election Commission guidance, the answer is no. 218 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:21,000 That guidance was issued voted on on July 9th, issued on July 10th. 219 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,000 Anya, you had a well. 220 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:24,000 Well, yes. 221 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:29,000 So, you know, truly moments before we started taping, I got sent motions that were filed in court, 222 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,000 so there is now a lawsuit about this. 223 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,000 I did not have a chance to open those documents, and so we won't talk about them today. 224 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:36,000 I skimmed them. 225 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,000 But I suspect that we'll talk about them soon. 226 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:39,000 Yeah, that's right. 227 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,000 And so that's something that's going to need to get resolved pretty quickly in the primaries August 11th. 228 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:50,000 And so for people who, you are talking tens of thousands of people who have voted 80,000 people 229 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:56,000 who have now voted absentee, so that's definitely something that we'll have to watch get resolved 230 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,000 through the courts potentially. 231 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:02,000 But as of right now, those votes cannot be counted in this very quickly shifting race for governor. 232 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:07,000 Well, they're counted, but they just can't be disqualified and recast to me there. 233 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,000 They will absolutely be counted no matter who you voted them for. 234 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:18,000 But changing your mind is not a reason to recast your ballot according to Wisconsin Election Commission guidance. 235 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:20,000 That's all the time we have for today. 236 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:21,000 Thanks for joining us. 237 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,000 This has been Inside Wisconsin Politics. 238 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:29,000 Be sure to follow us on PBSWisconsin.org, WPR.org, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.