In low-turnout election with no Republicans on ballot, Democrat Dora Drake wins open Wisconsin state Senate seat, while two poll observers were removed

In a low-turnout, special primary earlier this week, a Wisconsin state Senate seat was won by Democrat Dora Drake.

The election was only to complete former state Sen. Lena Taylor’s term. She left after becoming a Milwaukee County circuit judge. Her term ends in January of 2025.

Drake got about 66 percent of the vote over LaKeshia Myers.

The two are back on the ballot for the August primary and November general election. No Republicans are officially running in the district, so the winner of the primary will hold the seat through 2028.

About 7,149 ballots were cast in the election, compared to 89,396 registered voters. That puts turnout at 8%.

Drake’s win means Republicans will now enter the fall election cycle with a 22-12 advantage in the state Senate.

During voting, two election observers were removed by police for getting confrontational with poll workers, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Before Glendale police arrived, poll workers had issued multiple warnings against hovering too closely and disrupting typical procedures.

Most of the observers challenging the ballots were from outside of Milwaukee County and registered as either a “concerned citizen,” with the Republican Party or an associated group, according to election observer logs.

Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy told the Journal Sentinel it’s a precursor to “what we’re going to see in November.”

Among those on the logs included Harry Wait, a Racine County resident who was charged in 2022 for fraudulently requesting absentee ballots to prove fraud existed, and Peter Bernegger, a New London resident who has engaged in relentless legal efforts to prove fraud in the 2020 election.