Need-to-Know Info for Your April 2 Vote

Plus: Gallagher resigns and Jacque’s response

In-person, absentee voting began Tuesday, March 19, and Election Day is Tuesday, April 2, for the local Spring Election and Presidential Preference vote.

Elections are being held for the County of Door; the City of Sturgeon Bay; the towns of Baileys Harbor, Egg Harbor, Gardner, Gibraltar, Liberty Grove, Nasewaupee, Sevastopol and Washington; and the villages of Egg Harbor, Ephraim, Forestville and Sister Bay. 

Not all races have contests, but for those that do, we introduced you to the candidates in the March 15 issue of the Peninsula Pulse. That information can be accessed here: doorcountypulse.com/meet-the-candidates-6/.

In addition, all Door County voters will decide a Circuit Court Judge race (those candidates can also be found at our Meet the Candidates link above); will cast their Presidential Preference votes; and will weigh-in on two state-wide referendums related to prohibiting non-governmental funds in elections and election administration. Both ballot measures would change the Wisconsin Constitution if passed. For more information, go to ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_2024_ballot_measures.

Voters in the towns of Gardner, Union and Brussels will also have referendum questions on their ballots, each asking voters if they support borrowing money to pay for broadband throughout each town. Sanitary Districts within the towns of Forestville and Sevastopol will also be on the ballot for those voters, with no candidates running for the open seat in Forestville and one candidate (Paul Wegner) on the ballot for Sevastopol.

We’ll have results on our website at doorcountypulse.com on Election Day evening after the polls close, and in our April 5 issue of the Pulse.

Gallagher Resigns

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) announced March 22 that he would be resigning his Eighth Congressional District seat effective April 19, rather than wait until January 2025 when representatives-elects are sworn in after the Nov. 5, 2024 election.

Gallagher had announced in February that he wouldn’t run for a fifth term. He gave no reason in his statement as to why he was resigning early. His decision, he said, came after conversations with his family.

Gallagher’s decision not to run for a fifth term came less than a week after he was one of only four Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Gallagher faced backlash for that vote from other House Republicans, and local Republican Party chapters in his district, including Oconto County GOP chairman Ken Sikora who wrote in a letter to other county chairs in Gallagher’s district to “unite and condemn” Gallagher for what Sikora called Gallagher’s “betrayal.”

During his tenure, Gallagher has spearheaded House pushback against the Chinese Government as Chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Community Party. He was first elected in 2016 and most recently re-elected with 72% of the vote in 2022. 

Candidates who have announced a bid for the seat, to date, include Sen. Roger Roth (R-Appleton) and District 1 Sen. André Jacque (R-De Pere), who responded this week to Gallagher’s resignation.

“I disagree with Congressman Gallagher’s decision to leave before the end of his term,” Jacque said, according to Wispolitics.com. “We deserve representation, and the country needs now, more than ever, strong conservative leadership to stop the disastrous Biden administration. The people of Wisconsin’s 8th district need someone who will fight the swamp, not join them, and that’s why I’m running.”

Where do you vote?

All polling places in Door County open at 7 am and close at 8 pm. To find your polling place, go to co.door.wi.gov/DocumentCenter/View/519/Door-County-Polling-Places.