Tuesday’s spring primaries saw low voter turnout and few local officials up for election, with the day’s most prominent primary being the race for a seat on the Fourth District Court of Appeals.
Voter turnout in primarily student districts was minimal. In all, 39 votes were cast in the six districts encompassing the campus area. Turnout of Madison residents amounted to 8,321 votes cast.
The candidates for the court of appeals position are Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, La Crosse County Circuit Judge Ramona Gonzalez and Richland County Circuit Judge Edward Leineweber. Only two candidates will remain to move on to the spring election on April 6.
The fourth district contains 24 counties and is presided over by 16 judges.
The results of Dane County’s primaries saw Blanchard far ahead of his opponents with a total of 12,630 votes, amounting to 71.89 percent of the total votes cast, according to numbers provided by the county.
Blanchard, who was first elected to the position of Dane County DA in 2000, had previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago hearing federal cases and spent a few years at a law firm handling civil cases following that.
Blanchard said, should he be successful in the April election, he would like to see a faster and more efficient process from the filing of an appeal to their ultimate decisions.
“In pretty much every lawsuit, whether it involves a family crisis or a business dispute, at least one party is going to be anxious to get that resolved, every day that goes by that it is not resolved is pain or money,” Blanchard said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
He added he would like to see the appeals process able to reach more residents of the district rather than having appeals handled solely in Dane County.
As of press time, several counties in the fourth district had yet to report the results of their respective voting wards. The margin between Gonzalez and Leineweber as of press time was too close to call and neither one was willing to speculate as to the results. The remaining counties will report their results today as offices open.
