Jake Piper
Voters walk past a “Vote Here” sign at a polling place at Olbrich Botanical Gardens during Wisconsin’s partisan primary in Madison, Wis., on Aug. 11, 2026.
The polling place at Olbrich Botanical Gardens on Madison's east side has consistently high turnout numbers.
While partisan primaries don’t draw nearly as many voters as general elections, Tuesday’s vote saw turnout in Dane County come in at about 10 percentage points higher than the last midterm primary in August 2022 and similar to the August 2024 primary. Across Dane County, about 43% of registered voters participated in an election that featured primaries in several races, most notably for governor on the Democratic side.
County turnout in 2018, the last time there was a contested Democratic gubernatorial primary, was 40%.
In Madison, that number was just over 45%, with several wards seeing turnout top 60%.
A gubernatorial ballot featuring state Rep. Francesca Hong and state Sen. Kelda Roys, both of Madison, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the favored choice of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers, ignited a statewide debate over electability and the chances of a progressive candidate like Hong in the November general election.
Raw numbers, sorted by ward, are available on the Dane County Clerk’s website and a good map of Madison voting wards is available from the city’s website.
Nobody beats 19
Olbrich Botanical Gardens on Atwood Avenue is home to Madison’s most active voting ward, located in the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara (or SASY) neighborhood. Over 1,700 voters, representing about 71% of registrations in the ward as of Aug. 1, turned out Tuesday or mailed in absentee ballots.
Ward 40 in the Marquette neighborhood had 1,637 voters (66%), while Ward 71 in the west-side Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood saw 1,162 voters (67%).
A recent trend of higher turnout on the far west side continued, with several wards located west of the Beltline and south of Middleton — where development has brought single-family homes and apartment buildings in the last 20 years — bringing out over 1,000 voters each. But their percentages were lower than 50%, with some below the county average of 43%. Recent patterns indicate those voters tend to show up in larger numbers for general elections.
Predictably, many of the lowest turnout wards were those located downtown, near the UW-Madison campus, where the dorms are empty and summer courses have concluded.
East vs. West
While Hong’s strength in Madison was focused primarily on the east side (Wards 19, 40, 41, 43, 46, 18, 29), the wards Crowley won were mainly on the west side (Wards 80, 85, 70, 71, 113, 91, 96, 87). But even in wards where Hong finished with big totals, Crowley managed to collect a lot of votes as well. His fourth best ward was 19, where he received 520 votes to Hong’s 935.
Hong’s percentage of the Madison vote (46%) was slightly higher than her Dane County vote (44%), while Crowley did significantly better across the county (36.7%) than he fared in the city (just over 30%).
Kelda Roys’ support was spread pretty evenly across the city, but she failed to capture more than 15% of the vote in any single ward outside of 123, which saw just 54 ballots cast in the race.
Candidates in Assembly race see scattered support
Madison Ald. Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford emerged from a crowded Democratic field in Assembly District 76, but failed to secure more than 30% of the district’s vote. Though she earned her biggest total in the east-side Ward 19 (435), which she represents on the city council, she lost the ward to legislative aide Isaia Ben-Ami (532). Ben-Ami, who finished third in the race, also won Ward 40, but not by a lot of votes.
Martinez-Rutherford won the other wards located in her council districts and in parts of the east and north sides, but the same was true for former Ald. Juliana Bennett, who was strong on the north side and downtown. Bennett finished second, losing by just over 1,000 votes.
Unlike in mayoral races, where candidates often focus their campaigning in strategic areas of the city, each of the top three 76th District candidates appear to have campaigned throughout the district. Ben-Ami won five wards, Bennett won eight and Martinez-Rutherford carried 13.
Swimming in the vote
Three wards collected just a single vote each: 122, 126, 131. Two of those — 126 and 131 — appear to be located in Lakes Monona and Mendota, respectively, on the city’s ward map.
This reporter resisted the temptation to call the city clerk on a busy day to inquire about this bit of trivia. But stay tuned.
