The Marquette Law School Poll’s Charles Franklin was able to spot trends in a survey of 2026 gubernatorial primary voters, even though it didn’t capture the fact that one candidate had dropped out and another reentered the race due to timing issues. Attorney Bryna Godar of the State Democracy Research Initiative explained court cases leading to state rules that do not allow absentee voters to recast their absentee ballot when a candidate drops out. Ryan Graham from Balance of State Continuum of Care described the impacts of the abrupt closure of a non-profit providing homelessness services in northeast Wisconsin.

Charles Franklin
Director, Marquette Law School Poll

• The Marquette Law School Poll that was released July 22 was conducted before Sara Rodriguez dropped out of the 2026 Democratic primary race for governor and David Crowley got back in after previously halting his candidacy. Franklin said there are still some consistent trend lines despite the rapid shifts in the race.
• Franklin: “I think the biggest thing is that even with Rodriguez in the race in our poll, Francesca Hong was still in first place. That’s the fourth poll in a row that she’s led. Mandela Barnes was in second place, also the third poll that he’s been in second place since he got in the race. And of course we didn’t have David Crowley, because he was not a candidate at that moment. The other thing that’s really important is that 45% of Democratic primary voters said they hadn’t decided who they would vote for. So even before the turmoil of changing candidates, still almost half of the Democratic electorate said they haven’t settled on who they support.”
• Franklin is conducting a new poll to be released on July 29, focusing only on Democratic primary voters, including reinterviewing people the survey has previously included to measure whether they’ve moved closer to making a decision on a particular candidate.

Bryna Godar
Attorney, University of Wisconsin Law School State Democracy Research Initiative

• A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of three voters who cast absentee ballots in the Democratic primary for governor before Sara Rodriguez dropped out of the race seeks to block guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission that says they cannot request a replacement ballot. This requirement for absentee ballots came after a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge in 2022 rescinded previous guidance that allowed voters to cast a new and different absentee ballot up to three times for any reason. An appeals court subsequently repealed that lower court ruling. Godar explained why the higher court’s ruling does not prevail in this situation.
• Godar: “It’s because the appeals court ruling was not actually on the merits, so they overruled the lower court on this technical procedural issue and didn’t reach the merits of what the Wisconsin statute actually requires or allows. And so that means it’s still somewhat ambiguous, and so the Wisconsin Elections Commission is free to interpret the statute how it thinks is appropriate. There are questions of why it switched from its prior interpretation, which is what was challenged in 2022 to what they issued this month, but essentially we don’t have a court ruling providing certainty on what these statutes mean.”

Ryan Graham
Homeless systems manager, Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care

• Ten counties in northeast Wisconsin are scrambling to find places for people experiencing homelessness to find shelter after Newcap, a non-profit provider of services for unhoused people, abruptly closed due to bankruptcy. Balance of State, which covers 69 counties in Wisconsin, is rushing in to help along with state agencies and other programs. Graham said the provider that went under had families in the pipeline for housing that are now in limbo.
• Graham: “There was 134 households that were served in the direct homeless housing programs that we were able to maintain housing for, but there’s a significant amount of homeless folks still in that community that are in need of housing. That lack of services and the closing of that agency really creates a gap in institutional knowledge. It creates a gap in process and systems and all the things that were established there, and looking for resources and reestablishing that is going to take a considerable amount of effort.”

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