Candidates for state superintendent face off in today’s spring primary, the
only statewide race on the ballot.

Incumbent Tony Evers is facing off with John Humphries, a former Dodgeville administration who worked at DPI, and Lowell Holtz, the retired Whitnall superintendent. Racine teacher Rick Melcher has registered with the Elections Commission as a write-in candidate.

More than 36,500 people have returned their absentee ballots ahead of what’s expected to be a low-turnout primary election, according to the state Elections Commission.

The commission says as of Friday, 71,817 absentee ballots were issued and voters have returned 36,553 of them. The numbers are likely not fully updated because of the delay from some municipalities in entering data to the state’s system, Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said.

The commission doesn’t have similar data available for the spring elections in 2001, 2005 and 2009, the most recent examples of state superintendent primaries.

Absentee voting levels for today’s elections are similar to the spring 2013 primary, when Chief Justice Pat Roggensack ran for re-election and faced two primary challengers.

During that election, election officials issued 73,871 absentee ballots and ended up counting 48,982 of them.

Voting information:
elections.wi.gov/voters

Election information:
elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/2017/spring

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