All eyes have been on the Wisconsin supreme court race between Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford, with millions of coming in from out of state donors. This race is the most expensive of its kind in United States history, surpassing last supreme court race in the state.

The attention has done a lot to remind voters that there is in fact an election happening right now, just five months after the presidential election in November. Typically, off-year elections don’t get a lot of turnout and are the forgotten elections in some cases.

“In an off-year election, after a very contentious and polarizing presidential election cycle, oftentimes people tend to fall off or be not as interested in these off-year elections,” said UW-Superior political science professor Dr. Alisa Von Hagel.

Many states go through their biggest changes in these elections, despite only a fraction of the population casting their ballots. That has not been the case with this one.

“From what we’ve seen so far, it seems that there will be quite a big turnout and there are estimates that over 2 million Wisconsinites will turn out to vote. What we’ve seen are the numbers from early voting. I’ve seen 600,000 have turned out already,” said Dr. Von Hagel.

Reasons for the unprecedented turnout vary.

“I think it’s really important to exercise our right to suffrage. It’s a lot of people that have sacrificed a lot for us to maintain that. A lot of people think that they’re powerless in a lot of situations. This is a way you can have a little bit of power on what’s going on, what’s important to you,” said Tom Spang, a voter in Wisconsin.

“I hope it makes a difference in my mom’s world if it makes a difference to anybody, and it can only help Wisconsin. So, I came down and that’s why I voted because it’s important to my mom,” said Milyssa Aho, another Wisconsin voter.

After all, it’s our civic duty to vote.

In addition to the supreme court race, the superintendent of public instruction is on the ballot, as well as a photo ID referendum. There are also some other school board and city council elections in various districts across the state.