About half of the state’s voting-age population voted in Tuesday’s election, a record for a spring election that didn’t coincide with a presidential primary, according to preliminary figures. Turnout was even higher in left-leaning Madison and Dane County.

Driven by a highly partisan race for the technically nonpartisan office of state Supreme Court that drew national attention as a referendum on Donald Trump’s first months in office and set an all-time judicial race spending record, both the city and the county saw more than 50% of their voting-age populations cast ballots.

In Madison, it was about 57%, according to data from the city clerk’s office and state Department of Administration’s estimates of the voting-age population. In the county, it was near 60%. Unofficial results show 287,433 votes were cast in Dane County while 305,814 were cast in Milwaukee County.

Those kinds of numbers helped power Democratic-backed Dane County Judge Susan Crawford to a 10-point win over Republican-backed Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel for a spot on the state’s highest court.

The total number of ballots cast in Wisconsin on Tuesday was not yet available from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, but the Associated Press, using initial county totals, reported that 2,364,372 people cast ballots in the Supreme Court race. That would be about 50% of voting-age Wisconsinites.

That’s well above statewide turnout in the last state Supreme Court race, in 2023. The 39% of the voting-age population that turned out for that race, between Democratic-backed candidate Janet Protasiewicz and Republican-backed Dan Kelly, broke the previous record high set for a spring elections in which there wasn’t also a presidential primary on the ballot.

Protasiewicz won that race by 11 percentage points.

— Wisconsin State Journal

Man accused of Easter display vandalism

The Minnesota State Patrol says an Inver Grove Heights man damaged an Easter display outside the Capitol this week, according to a citation filed against him Thursday.

Capitol Security dispatchers could see a man on camera “destroying” a display on the building’s front lawn on Monday afternoon, the citation said. The display, which had a permit, included a wooden cross and the Ten Commandments, according to a State Patrol spokesman.

A trooper arrived as the man was walking away from the display.

He told the trooper the display “was hate speech and didn’t know damaging it was against the law.” He also said he didn’t know it “belonged to anyone and thought it was just left outside,” the trooper wrote in the citation.

The wooden cross was broken and part of the display was missing.

The trooper cited the man, 36, for misdemeanor criminal damage to property.

— Mara H. Gottfried

District makes shuffle in school leadership

Several changes in leadership in Stillwater Area Public Schools began on Thursday and will remain in effect for the remainder of the school year.

Brett Stringer, who has served as interim principal at Brookview Elementary School this winter, assumes the permanent role of principal. He brings more than a decade of experience as a school leader and has built a strong connection with the Brookview community, district officials said.

Malinda Major, who previously served as principal of Brookview, is serving as a principal on special assignment at Stillwater Middle School, with assigned duties as assistant principal.

Kristin Rolling, who has served as the assistant principal at Stillwater Middle School, is now assistant principal of Brookview and Lake Elmo elementary schools. Rolling began her career in Stillwater Schools as a school psychologist at the elementary level, district officials said.

The moves are part of a strategy to “place each administrator in a position where their skills can be most effective,” Superintendent Mike Funk said.

— Mary Divine