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Sara Eskrich on Final Five: A new way to vote to improve Wisconsin elections

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Sara Eskrich, executive director of Democracy Found, joined WIZM’s La Crosse Talk on Monday to discuss a new system of voting called Final Five.

Eskrich will be in La Crosse to discuss this more with the public, along with UW-L political scientist Scott Scinta, during a LeaderEthics hosted chat from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday at the Black River Neighborhood. To take part, RSVP here.


La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk wherever you get your podcasts.


Lee Rasch, executive director, was in the WIZM studio Monday, along with Eskrich calling from her office near Madison. Rasch helped discuss what Wednesday’s conversation with Eskrich and Scinta will go, including audience questions.

Eskrich helped break down what Final Five voting is, how it’s different from Ranked Choice voting and the benefits of moving to this kind of system.

Last year, the Wisconsin state Legislature held a committee meeting with bipartisan support on a Final Five voting bill, but it got no further than that. 

Lee Rasch in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk on Jan. 27, 2025

Host of WIZM's La Crosse Talk PM | University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point graduate | Hometown: Greenville, Wis | Avid noonball basketball player and sand volleyballer in La Crosse

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4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. John

    January 29, 2025 at 6:26 am

    No. How about we fix what we have. They told us our elections are safe and secure.

  2. Kevin

    January 29, 2025 at 7:11 am

    No. absolutely not. One person one vote. if the elections are not safe, then make them safe. in person voting only, unless overseas on active duty or some other life occurrence preventing you from coming to the polling place. National day off.

    Quit bastardizing the election process in hopes of creating easier ways to cheat!

    • Don

      January 30, 2025 at 5:19 pm

      What happened to show I.D. and cast your vote, how hard is this to figure out, the democraps amaze me that they will go to any extreme to come up with new ways to bypass a proven system and to cheat the system to win, if they would spend as much time doing what they were elected for as they come up with new ideas to cheat the system they might accomplish something

  3. walden

    January 29, 2025 at 7:22 pm

    Sen Murkowsky (a RINO) from Alaska previously lost her seat. Murkowsly ran again after ranked choice was implemented and although she had fewer votes than her opponent, by the time the ranked choice process was complete, she magically won. The election outcome took more than two weeks to determine.

    Ranked choice, (“final five” is just a new name as “ranked choice” has become a tainted term) involves manipulation of huge amounts of ballot data in an iterative computerized process that by its nature is not directly observable by the human eye. A final five process would involve 5 times the ballot counting followed by additional processes of eliminating and reassigning votes based on the first and subsequent counts. Just what we need.

    A quick look at the Democracy Found network finds it is funded primarily by ultra-wealthy lefties from Milwaukee and Madison. Perhaps they should take their program and implement it on their home turf for local elections before they try to burden us. Similarly named ranked choice advocates with suspiciously similar looking websites are at work in other states; this is apparently part of a national movement to immerse our election outcomes in a fog of data manipulation, state by state.

    I loved the comment that “red districts will have more red candidates.” Since about 68 of 72 counties in Wisconsin usually vote Red, those districts would see leading conservative candidates diluted by the number of conservatives running, thereby favoring Dem candidates.

    The speaker provided no support for her assertion that somehow all of this would result in more bi-partisanship.

    Hard pass on this dishonest attempt to further make our “safe and secure” elections less so.

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