MILWAUKEE — Fewer City of Milwaukee voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election than in any midterm in more than a decade.
New data from the Milwaukee Election Commission shows 62.8 percent of the city’s registered voters participated in the election. That’s a significant dip from 73.7 percent in 2018 and the lowest voter turnout in a midterm election since 2010.
Out of more than 300 voting wards in Milwaukee, one on the south side near 20th and Orchard had the lowest turnout in the city with less than a third of its registered voters participating.
"If they don't want to vote, they don't vote,” said Charlotte Tuckalski.
Tuckalski says she cast an absentee ballot. She lives in one of the 11 Milwaukee wards where voter turnout fell short of 40 percent.
"I don't think too many people are really believing in our system,” she said.
Victor Ramirez says he didn’t vote because he wasn’t aware of Election Day.
“If you knew the date of the election, would you have voted?” TMJ4 asked.
"I think I would have, I would have voted,” Ramirez said. “I think I would have took some time and just went down there and voted."
Milwaukee County had 46,284 fewer voters in 2022 than in the 2018 midterm election, according to Milwaukee County clerk records. The City of Milwaukee accounted for 36,789 of the drop-off.
"We rely very heavily on votes coming out of the City of Milwaukee,” said Democratic strategist Melissa Baldauff.
Given that Milwaukee is typically a Democratic stronghold, political strategists like Baldauff are already trying to get to the bottom of why so many people sat on the sidelines.
"To me, this is a civic engagement and a public education issue first and foremost,” she said. “We have with redistricting, there were a number of precincts that have changed, so I've heard stories from people working at polls saying they had to turn away dozens if not hundreds of people from their polling location, people who had voted there for 20 years and didn't realize their polling location had changed because the lines had changed."
"I understand the frustration,” said State Rep. David Bowen of Milwaukee.
Rep. Bown has a different theory as to why his hometown saw less voter participation than four years ago.
"Trying to understand what makes 2018 an outlier to drive out turnout could be related to the fact that 2018 was seen as the midterm to backlash against President Trump,” he said.
This time around, Rep. Bowen believes something he calls voter depression may be to blame.
"If there is a sense of hopelessness that says I see the headlines, I see the issues, it's continuing to affect me and my family every day but it's not changing, I am going to use less and less energy and time and resource engaging in this process and I'm just going to stick to what I know, what I have control over,” he said.
Baldauff says there are positives to be taken out of Tuesday’s turnout in Milwaukee. Particularly, a 300 percent increase in young voter participation compared to four years ago. She points to data that shows the increase was seen the most in voting wards near Marquette University and UW-Milwaukee.