2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court election

While Prosser had been re-elected to a second ten-year term in 2011, with that term expiring in 2021, the vacancy created by his resignation resulted in the election for a new full term in the seat being advanced to 2020. The Constitution of Wisconsin stipulates that early elections to full terms can be triggered by a vacancy. The constitution stipulates that it is impermissible for more than one seat to be up for election in the same year. Elections must be moved moved to an earlier year after a vacancy, but only if there is a more immediate year without a scheduled contest.^[1] All supreme court elections are held during the spring elections in early April.^[2] Since there were was no supreme court election scheduled in 2020, but there were elections scheduled in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, the vacancy moved the election to the next possible date, 2020. This allowed Prosser's successor to serve as justice for four years before they would be up for election.

After Governor Tony Evers defeated then-incumbent Governor Scott Walker in 2018, the Republican-controlled Legislature proposed a bill moving the 2020 presidential primary to February instead of being held on the same day as the spring general election in April.^[3] Republicans feared the increased turnout of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, would negatively effect incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly. The proposed bill ultimately died in committee.^[4]

• Daniel Kelly, attorney^[5][6]

• Michael B. Brennan, chairman of Governor Walker's Judicial Advisory Selection Committee^[7]
• Andrew Brown, attorney^[8]
• Claude Covelli, attorney^[8]
• Mark Gundrum, Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge for the Second District^[7]
• Brian Hagedorn, then-Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge for the Second District^[7]
• Thomas Hruz, Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge for the Third District^[7]
• Randy R. Koschnick, former chief justice of the Third District circuit court (2013–2017)^[7]
• James A. Morrison, judge of the Marinette County Circuit (Branch 2)^[8]
• Ellen Nowak, former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration (2018–2019)^[7]
• Paul Scoptur, attorney^[7]
• Jim Troupis, former judge of the Dane County Circuit (Branch 3) (2015–2016)^[7]

• Jill Karofsky, judge of the Dane County Circuit Court (Branch 12)^[9]
• Daniel Kelly, incumbent justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court^[10]

• Edward A. Fallone, Marquette University law professor and candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2013^[11]

The election took place in the state's spring elections, which also included the state's presidential primaries. The outbreak of the COVID–19 pandemic in the United States occurred in the weeks prior to the spring election. Following the outbreak, several other states had delayed their presidential primaries and extended their vote-by-mail periods, since concerns were raised by health officials, poll workers, and voters that in-person voting at this early height of the pandemic would be unsafe for vulnerable individuals.^[35] There were calls for Wisconsin to act similarly, but state Republicans opposed this. It was widely believed that state Republicans' objections to postponing the primaries was to advantage Kelly in the court election; with Republicans believed to have hedged that having the election proceeded as-scheduled and without emergency accommodations would depress voter turnout (particularly among liberal-leaning and Democratic-leaning voters), and that a lower-turnout election would be to Prosser's advantage.^[36][37]

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (a Democrat) initially signed an executive order for the spring elections to be conducting exclusively by mail-in voting. However, this order was rejected by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature.^[38] In a ruling issued on April 2, U.S. District Court Judge William M. Conley refused requests to postpone the election, but extended the deadline for absentee voting to April 13 (ordering clerks not to release any election data before that date).^[39][40] However, on April 6, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Conley's decision by a 5–4 vote, meaning that all absentee ballots had to be postmarked by "election day, Tuesday, April 7" even though it was still acceptable for the ballots to be received by the clerks as late as April 13.^[41][42] The Supreme Court of the United States "did not alter the provision in Conley's amended order which prohibits the reporting of results until April 13".^[43] On April 4, Governor Evers called a special session of the state legislature to be held on April 6 for the purposes of having them vote to postpone the spring election. However, this special session ended within minutes of convening and without any action, thus forcing the election to go on as planned.^[44] Despite having previously expressed the view that he lacked the power to postpone the elections by executive order,^[45] on April 6, Evers issued an executive order which would have postponed the April 7 elections until the tentative date of June 9.^[46][47] Republican leaders immediately challenged the Governor's Executive Order in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.^[46] The Wisconsin Supreme Court subsequently ruled 4–2 that Evers did not have the authority to postpone the election.^[48] Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, joined by Justice Rebecca Dallet, authored a dissent, attacking the majority’s decision as forcing voters into an unacceptable choice between their health and their right to vote during an unprecedented public health crisis. Justice A.W. Bradley also criticized the majority for ignoring both common sense and public health warnings, asserting that the ruling will disenfranchise voters and needlessly endanger public safety, thereby undermining democratic participation.^[49]

Voting was somewhat chaotic, with people waiting in the rain for hours in some cases in masks and social distancing.^[50] However, by the time the election concluded, Milwaukee Election Commissioner Neil Albrecht stated that despite some of the problems, the in-person voting ran smoothly.^[51]

During the campaign, Karofsky criticized Kelly and other members of the court's conservative majority for majority opinions that she argued gave them the appearance of being beholden to special interests. She also criticized Kelly and other conservative justices for having made comments that she characterized as unbefitting of judges.^[52] Karofsky's comments prompted the conservative court majority to issue statements characterizing them as "baseless insults".^[53][54][55]

Kelly was backed by the state's Republican Party, and was endorsed by Republican incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump.^[56]