Wis. voters go to polls for recall elections Tuesday

Voters in six Wisconsin districts go to the polls Tuesday for the first round of Democratic primaries in the state's senate recall elections.

Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board called the primaries after Republicans found six protest candidates to run against Democrats.

The protest candidates are running to delay the general election by a month and give Republican incumbents more time to campaign.

Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, said the protest candidates are not likely to persuade voters.

"However, there's enough of a concern that there's the possibility of crossover voting to nominate a candidate that I think the Democrats, in particular, have to make sure they turn out enough votes to prevent that from being a possibility," Franklin said.

In the district that includes the city of La Crosse, the primary is between Democrat Jennifer Shilling and James Smith, a GOP spoiler candidate.

And in the district that includes Hudson and River Falls, Issac Weix is the Republican running as a Democrat in the primary against Shelly Moore.

The winners of the Democratic primaries will face the targeted Republican incumbents, Dan Kapanke and Sheila Harsdorf, Aug. 9.

In all, recall organizers filed petitions against nine state senators over their opposition to or support of Gov. Scott Walker's law curtailing collective bargaining rights for pubic employees. Three are Democratic senators. The other six are Republican.