The 1914 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held on November 6, 1914. Incumbent Republican Senator Isaac Stephenson did not run for re-election.
Democratic State Senator Paul O. Husting narrowly defeated Republican Governor Francis E. McGovern. Socialist former mayor of Milwaukee Emil Seidel ran a strong third. This was the first United States Senate election to be held by a popular vote in Wisconsin. Uniquely for this contest, Wisconsin utilized an early form of instant-runoff voting; all other elections in the state in 1914 were conducted using traditional first-past-the-post voting and Wisconsin would discontinue using this method following this election.[1]
Wisconsin's general election for United States Senate in 1914 utilized an early form of instant-runoff voting and it was only used for this particular election. Voters were able to make a first and second choice among the four candidates.[3] Since no candidate received an absolute majority of the first choice votes, candidates were progressively eliminated and their second choice votes added to the remaining candidates. However, very few voters actually availed themselves of the second choice option. The final tally only netted each major party candidate about 400 votes each. Hustings' leads in the first choice votes only and after the final elimination were essentially the same, but once Seidel was eliminated, that lead was sufficient for a small majority.[1]
1914 United States Senate election in Wisconsin[1]
This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles.(March 2023)
.jpg)
