Election stories from around Wisconsin

6:50 p.m. Heavy turnout but few problems mark Wis. election

MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin voters turned out in heavy numbers on Tuesday and observers reported long lines but few serious problems.

The longest lines came when polls opened at 7 a.m. and in the late afternoon as people left work - the two most popular times to vote. Still, election workers said an increase in early absentee voting reduced the pressure at polling places.

Election observers reported lines of an hour or longer at some sites but said voting went smoothly except for routine glitches and a few high-profile disturbances.

A bomb threat in the western Madison suburb of Middleton forced election workers to move a polling place from a Middleton high school to a nearby fire department.

High school officials received the threat shortly after 3 p.m., police dispatcher Tim Hoeksema said. He didn't have details but said the threat was serious enough to move the polling site.

In Milwaukee, two juveniles were cited for disorderly conduct for disrupting a polling place at South Division High School. The two were yelling and making unspecified threats at voters, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.

Republican Party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the GOP was looking into whether at least one absentee ballot was cast under a deceased person's name in Milwaukee. A poll worker who knew the deceased person questioned the ballot as it was being processed, she said.

"I believe we're challenging it," she said.

Turnout appeared high in many parts of the state, where temperatures reached in the low 70s. State officials predicted a record 3.2 million votes would be cast.

"This is unprecedented. We've got more voters than ever," said Carol Weidel, who was the lead poll worker at the Madison school district's administration building. More than 1,000 people, mainly University of Wisconsin-Madison students, had voted there by 10:30 a.m.

In Green Bay, 25 percent of registered voters had cast ballots by 10 a.m., city clerk Douglas Daul said. He predicted a turnout of 90 percent of the 60,000 voters that were pre-registered.

Daul said he ordered an additional 5,000 ballots on Tuesday afternoon for a dozen polling places that were running low.

In Milwaukee, voters waited 90 minutes or more Tuesday morning at the busiest sites, observer Barbara Quindel said.

"The biggest problem we're facing is insufficient number of staff people at polling places where there's huge turnout," she said. "I would say the voters have been remarkably patient and eager."

She said the unseasonably warm weather helped keep voters in good spirits since many of the lines were outside.

Another bright spot was an increase in absentee voting before Election Day of 50 percent or more in some areas compared with 2004.

"The whole idea of the early vote has been an astronomical help," said Sheila Cochran, who was also monitoring voting sites in Milwaukee. "I can't imagine what some of these sites would be if it wasn't for the early vote."

Representatives of the U.S. attorney's offices in Madison and Milwaukee and the state Department of Justice said they had received no complaints of election irregularities by mid-afternoon.

In Madison, one of the biggest problems was college students who believed they had already registered but were not in the poll books, observer Lissa Koop said. Most of the students were able to reregister without incident, she said.

"Things are going smoothly," she said. "Nothing too exciting, which is how we like it."

The election was the first in which poll observers operated under tighter rules designed to stop them from interfering with the process. The rules barred them from interacting with voters and forced them to wear name tags stating they were observers, among other things.

Still, Republican Party lawyer Don Daugherty said there were several reports of observers talking with voters waiting in line in Milwaukee. However, poll workers were good about warning the observers to cut off the conversation, he said.

Government Accountability Board spokesman Kyle Richmond said there were similar reports around the state. "People are still getting used to the election observer rules and who is and is not an election observer," he said.

3:37 p.m. Last stand for Assembly Republicans?

MADISON - Republicans in the state Assembly tried to hold off a Democratic bid to seize control of the chamber in Tuesday's elections.

Republicans have held the majority in the Assembly for 15 years. But a wave of anti-Republican sentiment in 2006 and former GOP Rep. Jeff Wood's decision earlier this year to leave the party shrank its edge to just four seats. Democrats hope to capitalize on presidential hopeful Barack Obama's popularity and the recent ecomonic meltdown and reclaim the chamber.

Democratic control of the Assembly could reshape Wisconsin politics. Democrats held a three-seat edge in the state Senate, and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle isn't up for re-election until 2010. If the party can hold on to the Senate and retake the Assembly, it will have a clear path to advance its agenda.

Sixteen of the Senate's 33 seats were up for re-election, with seven incumbents - four Democrats and three Republicans - unopposed. One of the tightest contests was in southeastern Wisconsin, where four-term Republican incumbent Alberta Darling of River Hills looked to hold off a challenge from Democratic state representative and gynecologist Sheldon Wasserman of Milwaukee.

The heavy action, though, was expected in the Assembly, where all 99 seats were up for election. Twenty-six incumbents were unopposed, including 21 Democrats and five Republicans, but nine seats were vacant.

Democrats had about a dozen Assembly Republicans in their sights. The hotter races included a bid by Democratic economist John Waelti of Monroe to unseat two-term GOP incumbent Brett Davis of Oregon, and in Eau Claire, stay-at-home mom Kristen Dexter's challenge of two-term GOP incumbent and archery shop owner Terry Moulton.

Republicans conceded nothing, targeting a number of open seats and vulnerable Democratic incumbents, chief among them communications professor Kim Hixson, a first-termer from Whitewater.

Hixson defeated GOP Rep. Debi Towns of Janesville by 38 votes in a recount in 2006. Towns was looking Tuesday to reclaim her old job.

MILWAUKEE - Seven absentee ballots have been challenged in Milwaukee based on concerns about the voters' residency.

Milwaukee Police Detective Mike Sandvick says he earlier discovered the discrepancies with the ballots while he was on duty, but challenged them as a citizen because he's off-duty Tuesday.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf says voters who cast three of the disputed ballots voluntarily withdrew them. He says the four others are under investigation.

While eight U.S. House members sought re-election Tuesday, the spotlight was on a race in northeastern Wisconsin where a freshman Democrat was fighting a familiar, well-financed opponent.

Millionaire doctor Steve Kagan won his first run for public office two years ago, when he defeated former Assembly speaker John Gard by fewer than 6,000 votes. Gard had served more than 19 years in the Legislature when he lost his bid for the District 8 seat Republican Mark Green held for eight years.

Kagen, 58, was only the second Democrat to win in the sprawling 14-county district in the past 30 years. The area includes loggers in tiny towns like Florence, small businesses in Shawano and corporate executives in Green Bay and Appleton.

Incumbents generally win re-election because of the power of their offices and the money they can raise.

But Gard raised $1.4 million - just $400,000 less than Kagen - and as of Oct. 15, he had more cash on hand, $486,000 compared to Kagen's $193,000, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Kagen responded by dumping $180,000 of his own money into his campaign.

"I am working hard to bring about all the changes we need," said Kagen, whose victory in 2006 helped Democrats take control of the 435-member House after 12 years in the minority.

"Just ask yourself, 'Are you better off now than you were two years ago?'" he said.

Kagen, who founded allergy clinics in Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh and Fond du Lac, campaigned on his votes to raise the minimum wage, give soldiers and veterans a pay raise, end the war in Iraq and reform the health care system.

In late September, he voted to lift the quarter-century ban on offshore oil exploration. In October, in what many viewed as a vote bucking his own party, he voted against a $700 billion bailout of the nation's failing financial system.

Gard, 45, moved closer to Green Bay after he lost in 2006 and founded Gard Business Group, a consulting firm. He made $4 gasoline a centerpiece of his campaign this year, pointing out the price was $2.33 when Kagen took office.

Gard called for increasing domestic production of oil by allowing exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off America's coastline.

The district's largest newspaper, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, endorsed Gard, saying Kagen "has done an acceptable job, but we think Gard is more attuned to the people of the district."

It's been 10 years since an incumbent congressman has lost in Wisconsin - and that was former television anchor Jay Johnson, another Democrat seeking a second term in District 8.

- District 1 in southeast Wisconsin, where 38-year-old incumbent Republican Paul Ryan of Janesville took on Democrat Marge Krupp of Pleasant Prairie, a 52-year-old chemical engineer and businesswoman, and Libertarian Joseph Kexel, 43, of Kenosha.

- District 2 in southern Wisconsin, where 46-year-old Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin of Madison took on Republican teacher and computer software consultant Peter Theron, 52, of Madison. Baldwin took office in 1999 as the first Wisconsin woman elected to the House.

- District 3 in western Wisconsin, where Democratic incumbent Ron Kind, 45, of La Crosse, sought a seventh term against Republican Paul Stark, 47, who owns a home building company in Eau Claire, and Libertarian Kevin Barrett, 49, of Lone Rock. Barrett was known for his claim that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

- District 4 in Milwaukee, where 57-year-old Democratic incumbent Gwen Moore, the first black person elected to Congress from Wisconsin, sought a third term. She faced Independent Michael LaForest, 52, a former Green Party candidate who said he now represented the Purple Party.

- District 5, which covers Milwaukee's wealthy suburbs, where Republican James Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls had no Democrat opponent, and Independent Robert Raymond, 54, of Shorewood, got only 1 percent of the vote two years ago in a three-man race. Sensenbrenner, 65, has held the seat for nearly 30 years.

- District 6 in eastern Wisconsin, where Republican incumbent Tom Petri of Fond du Lac sought re-election against Democrat Roger Kittelson, a 51-year-old dairy marketing specialist from Lomira. Petri, 68, has held the seat since winning a 1979 special election.

- District 7 in central and northern Wisconsin, where the dean of the state's congressional delegation - Democrat Dave Obey of Wausau - faced a challenge from Republican farmer Dan Mielke, 54, of Rudolph. Obey, 70, won the office in a 1969 special election and his seniority has made him one of the most powerful members of Congress.

MADISON - The number of absentee votes cast in this year's election in Wisconsin could be as much as 50 percent more than in the 2004 presidential race.

That's according to Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board and the state's top election official.

He says a preliminary review of absentee voting this year in Brown, Dane, Milwaukee and Waukesha counties shows an overall increase of 50 percent or more. In Milwaukee County, absentee voting has increased by 84 percent.

Kennedy cautions this year's figures are preliminary but says if the trend holds, Wisconsin can expect a big increase in absentee ballots.

WAUKESHA - Municipal clerks are expecting to work late for this general election because of the huge turnout for early voting.

Absentee ballots are taken to the polls in the district where the voter lives and can be counted as soon as the polls open.

But, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus says she doesn't expect much of a lull at the polls, so the early votes will have to be counted after the election booths close at 8 p.m.

Nickolaus says people in Waukesha County take their voting rights very seriously, with 96 percent turnout for the last presidential election.

She says given the interest this election has generated, the county might even surpass that percentage this year.