Janet Protasiewicz's 98% Vote Shares in Wisconsin Compared to North Korea
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz's victory in the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday has been compared to a North Korean election after she won more than 90 percent of the vote in some wards.
Protasiewicz is a liberal who was supported by Democrats in the race, which was technically nonpartisan, and she defeated Republican-backed Daniel Kelly, a former member of the state's supreme court in a result that could have major implications for Wisconsin and nationwide.
Some on social media pointed to the fact that Protasiewicz won by overwhelming margins in some wards in the state, which drew comparisons to elections in North Korea.
Twitter user @umichvoter, who regulalry tweets about elections and politics, pointed to the fact that in some wards, the vote for Protasiewicz was nearing 100 percent. For example, in Madison Ward 19 she won 98 percent support—1,972 votes—to Kelly's 50 votes, or 3 percent due to rounding.
Similarly, in Madison Ward 40, Protasiewicz won 1,876 votes to Kelly's 44—meaning the liberal judge won 98 percent of the votes cast. Newsweek has verified these numbers.
Jeet Heer, writer with The Nation, shared the tweet from @umichvoter and joked: "These are numbers a North Korean dictator might envy."
Grace Chong of Steve Bannon's War Room podcast shared a post from the former White House adviser to Donald Trump, that simply said "North Korea" in response to @umichvoter's post.
Chong also tweeted "North Korea" in apparent reference to the dictatorship where the ruling party generally wins overwhelming victories in elections.
In North Korea's 2019 parliamentary elections, the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, a group of pro-government parties led by the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, reportedly won 100 percent of the vote on a turnout of 99.9 percent.
Elections in North Korea are not considered to be free or fair and voters receive a ballot paper with just a single candidate listed and are not required to tick any box or make any selection, according to a BBC News report about the 2019 elections.
However, there was nothing nefarious about the recent elections in Wisconsin, where Protasiewicz won the vote statewide by a margin of 11 points, at 55.5 percent to Kelly's 44.5 percent.
Results from the state's Supreme Court primary on February 21, made available by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, show similar results for Protasiewicz. For example, in Madison Ward 19 she won 1,166 votes to Kelly's 12.
In Madison Ward 40, Protasiewicz received 1,041 votes in the primary compared to 19 for Kelly. Two other candidates also participated in the primary but only the top two voter-getters—Kelly and Protasiewicz—progressed to April's election.
"Wisconsin's election systems are secure thanks to the Wisconsin Elections Commission's strong partnerships with federal and state agencies and local election officials," the Wisconsin Election Commission says on its website.
The commission's website adds that it had "found no evidence that Wisconsin's election systems have ever been compromised."
Protasiewicz's win could have a profound effect on state as well as national politics as her addition to the court will now give it an effective 4-3 liberal majority. This could open the way to challenges to state electoral maps for the U.S. House of Representatives, which currently favor Republicans. That liberal majority could also strike down Wisconsin's 1849 abortion ban.
It could also prove crucial in dealing with any potential challenges to the 2024 presidential election results in Wisconsin. In 2020, a majority of the justices refused to hear then-President Donald Trump's challenge to the election, but three conservative justices on the seven-member court wanted to take up the case.
Newsweek has reached out to the Protasiewicz via email for comment.
