Opinion: Scott Walker Says Three Votes Decided a Wisconsin Primary, So Nobody Should Skip This Election
The former Wisconsin governor points to a 2010 Assembly primary won by three votes and two razor-thin presidential margins to argue that no election is a foregone conclusion. He urges readers to make a plan to vote on Nov. 3.
This is a summary of an opinion column. The views belong to Scott Walker, not to RightNewsRightNow.
Walker opens with a story. In September 2010, Tyler August, then 27, ran in a six-way Republican primary for an open Wisconsin State Assembly seat. On election night he appeared to have lost by four votes. After a recount, Walker writes, August won 1,760 to 1,757, out of more than 7,300 cast. August won that November and now serves as the Assembly's majority leader. Walker's point is that every bill, budget and negotiation since then traces back to a three-vote margin.
The argument. People say their vote "doesn't matter," Walker writes, because elections feel enormous, with millions of voters and billions of dollars. But "elections are not actually decided by 'the electorate.' They are decided by individual people, one ballot at a time."
Wisconsin's numbers. He says more than 3.2 million Wisconsinites voted in 2020 and the presidential margin was 20,682 votes. In 2024, he writes, more than 3.4 million voted and the margin was 29,397, which he says made Wisconsin the closest state by percentage. He adds that only Georgia and Arizona had narrower 2020 margins by percentage, at 11,779 and 10,457 votes.
Why local races matter. Walker says state and local governments set taxes, rules, housing, licensing and the cost of doing business, so the people who write those rules matter, and so do the people who choose them. He pushes back on the idea of voting as team identity and calls the ballot "much more practical": the one moment when everyone has the same unit of political power, whether a business owner, a first-time voter or a retiree.
His ask. Know when, where and how to vote, check your registration, find your polling place and make a plan for Nov. 3. "Vote for the candidates you believe will make your community, your state and your country stronger," he writes. "But vote."
Note for readers: the vote totals are Walker's figures. We did not check them against official results.