BY TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
While you will see candidates running for President of the United States on the April 2, 2024, ballot when you go to the polls in Wisconsin, and while some of those candidates listed on the ballot have already dropped out of the Presidential race, Wisconsin voters can still vote for the one person they want to be on the ballot in the November 2024 Presidential election. The purpose of this vote is to let Wisconsin’s delegates know who they want to be on that ballot to inform their votes at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to be held this summer which will formalize the names of the candidates who will appear on the final ballot in November.
Then, on Nov. 5, 2024, voters across the United States will head to the polls to vote for one of those candidates on that final ballot to elect the next President of the United States.
In this Spring Presidential Primary, voters can vote for whichever candidate they desire who is listed on the ballot, or they can write in a candidate, for whatever that is worth.
Voters can also select “uninstructed delegation” which casts their vote with either the Democractic or Republican party, but does not select a specific candidate to inform the Wisconsin delegates’ vote at the upcoming conventions.
In neighboring states, some Democratic voters have voted “uninstructed,” as a protest of how current President Joe Biden has handled the war in Gaza, according to organizers who were urging such a vote for that particular reason; however, it is not clear whether that is the only reason so many voters selected that option. Any time a person votes “uninstructed delegatation,” it is possible they simply do not prefer any of the candidates in that party’s race or that they do not know enough about the candidates to make an informed decision and want to opt out of that decision-making process.
In any event, as it stands now, even though more names still appear on the April 2 ballot, the November 2024 Presidential election is shaping up to be a rematch of the 2024 election with a face-off between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, since most other candidates have either already dropped out of the race or don’t appear to have the needed number of votes to get the nomination of their party to be listed on the ballot, based on primaries already held in other states.