MILWAUKEE — With days left until election day, voters are casting their ballots for highly contested seats like Governor and Senator, but also for Secretary of State.
A race that may not typically be top of mind.
Many people TMJ4's Ubah Ali spoke to outside early-voting sites hadn't put much thought behind this particular race.
"Secretary of State race, um, interesting. I guess I'm not totally sure," said Greta Johansen outside an early voting site.
State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
"To be honest, I don't know a ton about that one," Nick Wolf said.
UW-Milwaukee Professor Emeritus Mordecai Lee said the Office of the Secretary of State doesn't have much power right now but has the potential to become critical.
"It could be that this is going to be the most important race in Wisconsin because it'll decide who runs elections from here on out," Lee said.
There is a push across the country to have secretaries of state manage elections.
As it stands now, the Wisconsin Elections Commission oversees elections. It is made up of six bipartisan members.
Doug La Follette has held the Secretary of State seat for 44 years. He planned on retiring but decided against it after the push to expand the powers of the office.
"In general, I don't think a partisan politician should oversee the elections," La Follette said.
His challenger in the race, Representative Amy Loudenbeck, supports the Secretary of State holding such duties as election oversight.
"If they are looking at alternatives to the current election commission, I think they should look at this constitutional office," Loudenbeck said.
One race with big implications.