UW Oshkosh students turned out to vote on Tuesday, each doing their part to shape the future of our country in the highly anticipated presidential election.

According to the City of Oshkosh’s website, in 2016, 1,090 votes were cast in Oshkosh’s 4th voting ward, which encompasses the UWO campus. In the 2018 midterm elections, voter turnout shrunk to 792 in ward 4.

Student turnout for on-campus polling was expected to drop due to the continued impact of COVID-19 and the increased use of mail-in or absentee ballots.

Young voters are expected to be an important voting bloc in the 2020 election; according to Tisch College’s Youth Electoral Significance Index, Wisconsin’s youth vote is one of the most influential in the nation. An estimated 17% of the state’s population is between 18-29 years of age.

As a result, millions of dollars in funding has been pumped into the state by organizations such as NextGen America. In Wisconsin alone, NextGen spent over $5.5 million on campaigns and raising awareness among young voters.

From 2012 to 2016 there was a significant shift towards the right among young voters in the state, although Trump carried the state by less than 1% of the vote.

According to NextGen, Donald Trump’s victory in Wisconsin in 2016 was the first time a GOP candidate had won the state since 1984; he won by a margin of 22,000 votes.

Despite the massive influx of funds, NextGen’s efforts to elect Democratic candidates down the ballot did not succeed in Winnebago county.

Local Results

Winnebago County favored Trump, with roughly 53% percent of voters siding with the incumbent president at the time of writing, with 90% of ballots having been reported.

Winnebago County also voted incumbent Dan Feyen in for another term in the State Senate, defeating UWO alum Aaron Wojciechowski by a margin of roughly 3,000 ballots.

The unopposed incumbent County District Attorney, Christian Gosset, will remain in his post following the results of Tuesday’s election. Gosset received over 55,000 votes.

The Register of Deeds race was a landslide victory for the incumbent Republican Natalie Strohmeyer, who defeated independent Seth Reid by over 17,000 votes.

The 6th Congressional District race resulted in a victory for the incumbent Republican Glenn Grothman, who defeated Democratic challenger Jessica King by approximately 5,000 votes.

Incumbent Democrat Gordon Hintz defeated Republican challenger Donnie Herman in the race for the State Representative to the Assembly for the 54th District.

All night nationwide, polls showed Trump narrowing the electoral gap between him and Biden. Trump also began to pull ahead in swing states with high electoral votes. However, by morning, significant portions of votes in crucial states like Pennsylvania had yet to be reported.

Wisconsin polls quickly trended towards a victory for Trump, although an accurate tally couldn’t be determined at the time of writing, as both Dane and Milwaukee County constitute large liberal populations, carrying significant sway over results. In fact, in 2018, Milwaukee County’s late ballots essentially determined the gubernatorial race, giving Tony Evers the slightest edge over then-governor Walker.

By Wednesday morning, Wisconsin was stuck in a deadlock between the two candidates; after 95% of votes has been accounted for, according to the Associated Press, Biden had received 49.4% of the WI vote, to Trump’s 49.1%.