In a state where campaign season can feel year-round, voters in Wisconsin returned to the polls once again on Tuesday, casting their ballots in a nearly $100 million race for control of the State Supreme Court.
As dozens of voters streamed in and out of a Lutheran church in Mount Pleasant, Wis., they said that far more than the candidates’ names were on the ballot. There was a closely watched local referendum to pump more money into Racine County’s public schools, one of many similar questions posed to voters in communities across the state. There was a measure to enshrine a voter identification law in the state’s constitution.
And then there was Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and White House adviser who has poured millions into the race for advertisements and canvassing. Mr. Musk, who has gained sweeping authority over the government through President Trump, has become a deeply polarizing figure among Wisconsinites — many of whom said they would like to see him stay out of their business.
“Does my face say it all?” said Lydia Vela, 54, a banker who grimaced at the sound of Mr. Musk’s name. “He’s scary.”
Ms. Vela, a Democrat, said she hoped that a victory for Judge Susan Crawford, the liberal State Supreme Court candidate, over the conservative contender, Brad Schimel, would send a message that billionaires like Mr. Musk should not take a role in local politics.
Election officials said that early voting turnout had surpassed 600,000 votes, suggesting total turnout could surpass two million. About 1.8 million people voted in the 2023 State Supreme Court election.
Judge Crawford and Judge Schimel both voted on Tuesday morning. At a residence for older people on the far west side of Madison, Wis., Judge Crawford completed her ballot with her left hand, fed it through the voting machine and then made one more important decision: Which voting sticker to choose?
She picked the one that said “Every Vote Counts” — skipping the traditional “I Voted” option — and affixed it to the lapel of her jacket.
“I think these are designed by kids,” she said. “I think that’s nice.”
Some Wisconsin voters on Tuesday, both Democrats and Republicans, spoke of a growing dissatisfaction with the politicization of the state’s highest court, which is currently controlled by a slim liberal majority.
James Wampole, 61, a truck driver, said he had supported Mr. Trump in November because of his vows to take a harder line on immigration and to fix the economy, but decided to zigzag and vote for Judge Crawford on Tuesday. “I like what she’s about,” he said. “She seems like she’s the only one who’s got something in her head.”
Scott Korslin, 47, who is retired from the Navy and owns his own delivery business, said that he usually voted for Republicans and supported Mr. Trump in November. Mr. Trump carried Racine County by seven percentage points over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Korslin differed with Judge Crawford ideologically, he said, particularly on her support for abortion rights, and voted for Judge Schimel on Tuesday.
He said he believed that the federal government should be smaller, less sprawling and more efficient. But he was worried about the way that the Trump administration was going about cuts.
“I think they should use a scalpel rather than an ax,” he said.
Mr. Korslin was disgruntled with the court — and with the direction of U.S. politics.
“It’s gotten too ideological for me on both sides, too political,” he said. “They just keep going further and further from the middle.”
Danny Christoforos, 60, a kitchen manager, left the polls after casting a vote for Judge Crawford.
In November, dissatisfied with the options for president, Mr. Christoforos wrote his own name on the ballot.
“I don’t like the way things are going with the amount of money being spent on elections,” he said, criticizing Mr. Musk’s involvement in the Wisconsin race. “He should stay out of it. He’s an outsider.”
