Gubernatorial Candidates Seek To Rally Last-Minute Support

More get-out the vote efforts were expected on Tuesday as Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Mary Burke try to motivate their supporters to get to the polls by 8 p.m.

Walker’s schedule on Election Day includes voting in the morning at his sons’ former elementary school in Wauwatosa. Then, the Republican incumbent heads to campaign events in Green Bay and Wausau before his election night gathering at State Fair Park in West Allis.

Burke has already voted so she starts the day at a voter outreach effort in Green Bay before moving on to similar canvassing events in Wausau, Milwaukee and Madison. She will then stay in the state’s capital city for her nighttime gathering at the Overture Center for the Arts.

Mordecai Lee, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee governmental affairs professor, said the last-minute traveling is all about the key thing at this point: increasing turnout.

“The election has gotten to the point where there are so few undecideds that I really think it’s going to be the turnout of voters that is going to affect the outcome rather than convincing those final measley couple of percent who are undecided,” Lee said.

The state Governmental Accountability Board predicts 56.5 percent of eligible voters in the state are casting ballots in the fall election, which would be a record for a November governor’s race. However, this figure would be below the Walker recall election turnout in June 2012.

Lee said that Democrats want to beat the state’s prediction.

“The Democrats are hoping that they can bump up the turnout so it will be more than four years ago and perhaps, more than the recall election two summers ago. And then they have a chance at winning,” he said.

A number of groups and individuals are offering voters a free ride to the polls. Common Cause in Wisconsin has compiled a list of drivers in about 20 communities.

City bus rides are also free on Tuesday in La Crosse thanks to the local transit workers union.