Three weeks out from the Aug. 11 primary, voters have already requested at least 743,908 absentee ballots. That’s well above the 645,619 ballots cast in the August 2016 primary, when 101,803 voted absentee. Meanwhile, with President Trump raising questions about voting by mail, voters in the state’s two largest Dem counties are more likely to have requested an absentee ballot than those in the deep-red WOW counties. Tuesday’s update from the Elections Commission shows 722,668 ballots have been mailed and 192,914 have been returned. There is often a lag in local clerks reporting to the state system, so the actual

Retiring GOP U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner has endorsed state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald to replace him in the 5th CD. Sensenbrenner, who has held his current Congressional seat since 1979, touted the Juneau Republican as “someone who can look to the future and stand up against Nancy Pelosi’s liberal agenda that will cripple our nation.” “It’s imperative the Fifth District has representation with commonsense values and Scott is eminently qualified,” Sensenbrenner said in a statement. “His leadership in the Republican State Senate demonstrates he has the toughness and commitment to represent us in Washington.” Sensenbrenner is the most senior