What Happened?

On November 4, Wisconsin awarded it's 10 electoral votes to Barack Obama.

Obama received 56.32 percent to McCain's 42.2 percent of the vote. In terms of number of votes, Obama racked up 33,143 to McCain's 20,944.

Obama won the majority of Wisconsin voters who said the economy was their top concern, as well as three-in-five women, the majority of men, young voters and both black and white voters, according to the AP exit poll.

Historically, Northeastern Wisconsin has tended to be more politically conservative. That has changed in this election. Brown and Door counties voted Republican in 2000 and 2004, yet both voted for Obama in this election.

In Chippewa County, Obama received 16,236 votes compared McCain's 13,489. Obama, of course, won Wisconsin and its ten electoral votes.
City of Eau Claire voter turnout of 78.9%, while Eau Claire Countyhad a voter turnout of 72%. The record turnout for the city was in 2000 with more than 90% turnout.

Northeastern Wisconsin voters in seven area counties have trended red during the last two presidential elections, according to canvass summaries from the 2000 and 2004 general elections.

In 2000, Brown, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Oconto and Shawano counties all went for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in their run against Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, according to statistics from the state Government Accountability Board.

The trend repeated in 2004, when all seven counties logged more votes for the incumbent Bush/Cheney ticket over Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards, although the Democratic ticket won Wisconsin both years.

"What you're seeing is a similar pattern, which is lots of areas that used to be red are going blue," Kraft said. "A lot of exit polls are telling us it's the economy. People feel at a real loss with the state of the economy — we're in a recession that could be a severe, long-lasting recession. I think people sense that. … They're not at all happy with the current occupant of the White House or with the current Congress. In many ways, Brown County is sort of typical of some of these states we're looking at."