Obama and Walz urge Democrats to vote early in battleground Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Voters lined up across battleground Wisconsin to cast their ballots Tuesday on the first day of early, in-person voting, as former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz urged supporters in the liberal capital city to do the same.

Donald Trump lost Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in 2020, an election that saw unprecedented early and absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are expecting another razor-thin margin in Wisconsin, and both sides are pushing voters to cast their ballots early.

Walz, the governor of neighboring Minnesota, called Harris the underdog and encouraged voters to do all they can to get people to the polls.

“Even one or two extra votes per precinct will be enough to win this thing and send Kamala to the White House," Walz said.

Obama, the only president to carry Wisconsin by more than a percentage point in the past six elections, said he drove to the event from Chicago after his plane was leaking oil. Obama mocked Trump, calling him “loonier” than he was in 2016.

“We know this election is going to be tight," Obama said when urging early voting. "It's going to be tight here in Wisconsin, its going to be tight all across our country.”

Obama was headed to neighboring Michigan later Tuesday, among the several stops the former president is making in battleground states to encourage early voting.

Voters lined up Tuesday in communities across Wisconsin, including in the liberal strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison and in conservative suburban Milwaukee communities. Hours and locations for early voting varied across the state.

Trump has been highly critical of voting by mail during past elections, falsely claiming it was ripe with fraud. But this election, he and his backers are embracing all forms of voting, including by mail and early in-person. Trump himself encouraged early voting at a rally in Dodge County, Wisconsin, earlier this month.

Higher turnout from Republicans has led to breaking records for ballots cast before November in key states such as Georgia and North Carolina.

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler said given the new push from Trump and Republicans in support of early voting, “Democrats should expect Republicans to vote in massive numbers.”

“Across the country, the bigger question is how many Republicans are voting early for Trump and how many who voted for him in the past are voting for Harris,” Wikler said.

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said Monday that Trump and Republicans have been “very clear” in their support for voting early. Schimming even put in a plug for using absentee ballot drop boxes, a method of returning ballots that Trump once opposed and that some Wisconsin Republicans still do.

“We need to avail ourselves of every imaginable way to get votes in," Schimming said on a press call.

Numerous Republican officeholders and candidates voted Tuesday. One of them, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, said after casting his ballot at the village hall in Shorewood Hills, a Madison suburb, that early voting is part of the election process now.

Hovde encouraged others to vote early because it’s impossible to predict what might happen on Election Day.

Harris has been spending a lot of time in the “ blue wall ” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign, including stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was in the conservative Milwaukee suburbs on Sunday.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party was also staging events across Wisconsin to encourage early voting, as were liberal advocacy groups including Souls to the Polls, a Milwaukee-based organization that targets Black voters. That is a key demographic for Democrats in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and also the source of the highest number of Democratic votes.

Early voting in Wisconsin began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3. Voters do not need to give a reason for voting absentee. Ballots started being sent by mail in late September, but beginning Tuesday voters can request one at designated voting locations and cast their ballot in person.

As of Monday, more than 360,000 absentee ballots had already been returned in Wisconsin. Voters can continue to return them by mail, in person, or at absentee ballot drop boxes in communities where those are available. All absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

The story has been corrected to show a Harris rally last month attracted more than 10,000 people, not more than 14,000.

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., arrives to speak at a campaign event before Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former President Barack Obama, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at an event Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at an event Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at an event Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., arrives to speak at a campaign event before Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former President Barack Obama, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at an event Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at an event Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at an event Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks at a campaign event before Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former President Barack Obama, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

People lineup to vote on the first day of Wisconsin's in-person absentee voting at the Madison Public Library in Madison, Wisc., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal)

Students at The University of Wisconsin-Madison wait in line to cast their ballots in the 2024 election during the first day of Wisconsin's in-person absentee voting on the campus in Madison, Wisc., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal)

A Madison Clerk's Office worker delivers a pair of additional polling booths past people waiting to vote on the first day of Wisconsin's in-person absentee voting at the Madison Public Library in Madison, Wisc., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers arrives to speak at a campaign event before Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former President Barack Obama, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Students at The University of Wisconsin-Madison fill out ballots during the first day of Wisconsin's in-person absentee voting on the campus in Madison, Wisc., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal)

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway advocates for in-person, early voting in Wisconsin's capital city on the first day it is available, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)

Ruben Anthony, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, advocates for in-person, early voting in Wisconsin's capital city on the first day it is available, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde chats with reporters as he waits to turn in his ballot at the Village Hall in Shorewood Hills, Wis., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, the first day of early in-person absentee voting in the battleground state. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond)

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde casts his ballot at the Village Hall in Shorewood Hills, Wis., Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, the first day of early in-person absentee voting in the battleground state. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond)

FILE - Residents cast their votes at the Warner Park Community Recreation Center on the first day of early voting, March 21, 2023, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

FILE - A voter braves a cold rain running to cast a ballot during the Spring election, April 2, 2024, in Fox Point, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Regina Brinson heard a crack before the metal walkway gave way beneath her feet, plunging her into the water beneath the state-operated ferry dock on Georgia's Sapelo Island. As strong currents swept her and others who fell away from shore, she called to her 79-year-old uncle: “Grab my hand!”

Isaiah Thomas tried grasping his niece's hand. But he also clutched her shirt, dragging her head below the water's surface. Three days after the weekend tragedy, Brinson sobbed loudly Tuesday as she recalled her struggle to survive and what happened next.

“I had to take his fingers, one-by-one, and peel them off of my shirt,” Brinson said. "And I pulled him back up to the top, and I saw his face. And I was like, `Oh my God, what did I do? What did I do?' And he floated by me.”

Thomas was among seven people who died Saturday after the dock gangway collapsed with dozens standing on it, waiting to board an afternoon ferry for a ride back to the mainland. The disaster happened on a day when 700 people visited Sapelo Island for a fall festival celebrating its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.

Brinson and grieving relatives of two others who died stood by civil rights attorney Ben Crump at a news conference in Jacksonville on Tuesday as he called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock, is leading the state's investigation into why the aluminum gangway failed. The dock was built in 2021. Crump said he doesn't trust the state to investigate itself.

Those killed were all between the ages of 73 and 93, but Crump said their advanced ages made their deaths no less devastating.

“These senior citizens were vibrant people,” Crump said. He added: “They did not die of natural causes. They died of negligence."

Still largely unspoiled and untethered to the mainland by roads or bridges, Sapelo Island is home to one of the South's last remaining communities of residents descended from enslaved people known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia. Scholars say their isolation from the mainland enabled Gullah-Geechee people to retain much of their African heritage.

But only a few dozen residents remain in Hogg Hummock, founded after the Civil War by the enslaved Africans who worked the island's cotton plantation. Many island descendants have left for jobs on the mainland. Others have sold to outsiders land their families held for generations. A lack of services, including emergency resources, and battles over property tax increases have prompted remaining residents to fight their local government in court for more than a decade.

By contrast, the Cultural Day festival held Saturday was a time for celebrating, as island natives and visitors mingled over gumbo and smoked mullet, and watched demonstrations of basket weaving and fishing net crafting.

Thomas had traveled to the island with dozens of members of a senior-citizens club based in Jacksonville. Since the 1990s, he had lived with an older sister who served as his caregiver. His family knew him as “Bubba,” and he was a dedicated church member who volunteered at its soup kitchen, according to the sister, Katrena Alexander.

“I don't think you could find anybody any kinder,” Alexander said. “He would do anything you asked him to do. He would never say no.”

At the island dock Saturday, Thomas and his niece, Brinson, were helping a family friend cross the gangway with her walker. Brinson said she watched in horror as Carlotta McIntosh toppled from the fractured gangway. She didn't survive.

McIntosh was 93 years old, but she rarely stopped moving. She had taken a cruise in December, and told her granddaughter that the secret to her longevity was reciting the Serenity Prayer daily.

“There there was no old in her,” said the granddaughter, Ebony Davis. “She was vibrant. She was spunky. She was feisty. She was my world. She died doing exactly what she wanted to do: live life to the fullest.”

Jacquelyn Carter, 75, was a third member of the Jacksonville seniors club who died on Sapelo Island. She had planned several upcoming trips, according to her daughter Vanessa Williams. When she was home, Carter would often check on friends who weren't as agile, making sure they had food and their medication, even helping clean their houses.

“There was nothing wrong with her,” Williams said. “She was perfectly healthy and perfectly fine. And she should have come home.”

William Johnson Jr., 73, and his wife's cousin, 76-year-old Queen Welch, were also killed in the collapse. They traveled to the island festival from Atlanta with other family members. Johnson was an Air Force veteran who was retired from the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, his daughter Alaina Johnson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Welch was known as the family matriarch.

The McIntosh County coroner identified the others who perished as 77-year-old Charles L. Houston, a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and 74-year-old Cynthia Gibbs of Jacksonville. In a statement, Impact Church of Jacksonville said Gibbs was a longtime member who “was always ready to lend a helping hand, quick with a funny quip, full of energy, and so consistent that we maintained a staff workspace for her in our ministry offices.”

Crump and some family members Tuesday questioned whether the gangway may have collapsed under the weight of too many people. Officials have said it held about 40 people when the metal snapped.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said engineers calculated that the 80-foot (24-meter) gangway should have been able to support the weight of 320 people.

The dock was rebuilt in 2021 after Georgia officials settled a lawsuit by Hogg Hummock residents who complained the ferries and docks failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

The same lawsuit also accused McIntosh County of failing to provide adequate resources for responding to emergencies on the island. When the county settled with residents in 2022, it agreed to build a helicopter pad on Sapelo Island. But residents who scrambled to help save people after the collapse said the landing pad still hasn't been constructed, and a helicopter used to evacuate people Saturday had to land in an overgrown field pocked with holes dug by wild boars.

Sapelo Island also has no medical facilities. Resident Jazz Watts said a health care provider was planning to open a clinic in the county-owned building that had long served as the island's community center. But those plans got scrapped in the past year when county commissioners opted to lease the space for a restaurant.

A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Ga., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine)

Regina Brinson, center, weeps at a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, while speaking alongside her mother, Katrena Alexander and attorney Ben Crump during a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla. Crump represents families of three of the seven people killed when a ferry dock walkway collapsed on Sapelo Island, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 19. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

Wilbert Gardner, left, hugs Katrena Alexander while Alexander's daughter, Regina Brinson, right, looks on during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla, A dock gangway collapse happened as people were leaving a cultural festival on Sapelo Island, Georgia, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. Alexander's brother, Isaiah Thomas, was among the dead. Gardner had a friend who was hospitalized with injuries. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)