You know the drill: There’s an election on November 3. Please vote! Here are some good things, some bad things, and some dicey things related to doing just that.
THE GOOD
1. MyVote Wisconsin
A metric ton of voting guides pop up online every election, telling you how to register to vote, where to vote, and when to vote. But here’s a not-so-secret secret: all you really need to know can be found at MyVote Wisconsin. Deadlines, photo ID requirements, polling locations, and even a look at what will be on your ballot can all be found there. It’s great. Get more information (and register to vote, if you haven’t already) HERE.
2. Drop boxes
Voting absentee? If you’re a Milwaukee resident, you should probably skip the post office and deposit your ballot directly into one of 15 drop boxes located throughout the city. The drop boxes are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, up until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Those locations are:
• Atkinson Library (1960 W Atkinson Ave.)
• Bay View Library (2566 S Kinnickinnic Ave.)
• Capitol Library (3969 N 74th St.)
• Center Street Library (2727 W Fond du Lac Ave.)
• Central Library (814 W Wisconsin Ave.)
• City Hall Complex (200 E Wells St., on east side Market St.)
• East Library (2320 N Cramer St.)
• Election Commission Warehouse (1901 S Kinnickinnic Ave.)
• Good Hope Library (7715 W Good Hope Rd.)
• Martin Luther King Library (310 W Locust St.)
• Mitchell Street Library (906 W Historic Mitchell St.)
• Tippecanoe Library (3912 S Howell Ave.)
• Villard Square Library (5190 N 35th St.)
• Washington Park Library (2121 N Sherman Blvd.)
• Zablocki Library (3501 W Oklahoma Ave.)
3. Early voting
Voting early and in-person? If you want to take one last look at Miller Park before it becomes American Family Field next year, you can vote at the ballpark (via drive-thru) between October 20 and November 1. Fiserv Forum will be an early voting site during those dates, too, albeit one without a drive-thru. (Masks and social distancing will be required, of course.) Other early in-person voting locations are:
• Midtown Center (5700 W Capitol Dr.)
• Zablocki Library (3501 W Oklahoma Ave.)
• Bay View Library (2566 S Kinnickinnic Ave.)
• Cannon Park Pavilion (303 N 95th St.)
• Clinton Rose Senior Center (3045 N Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr.)
• East Library (2320 N Cramer St.)
• Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building (841 N Broadway, Room 102)
• Good Hope Library (7717 W Good Hope Rd.)
• Mitchell Street Library (906 W Historic Mitchell St.)
• Tippecanoe Library (3912 S Howell Ave.)
• Villard Square Library (5190 N 35th St.)
• Washington Park Library (2121 N Sherman Blvd.)
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Union (2200 E Kenwood Blvd.)
4. Election Day polling locations
Voting in-person on Election Day? If you’re a Milwaukee resident, be sure to wear a mask and prep for a photo of your mask with an “I Voted” sticker on it. Find your polling place HERE.
5. More buses on Election Day
Need to take a bus to get to your polling place on Election Day? The Milwaukee County Board recently approved spending $28,000 to “shore-up bus service on election day and a public information campaign explaining how to use the transit system to access polling places.” Get more information at Urban Milwaukee.
THE BAD
1. A (temporarily) halted six-day extension on counting absentee ballots
With millions of Wisconsinites voting absentee this election, wouldn’t it be nice if clerks had extra time to count those absentee ballots? Of course it would—but, as of right now, that ain’t gonna happen. On Sunday, a federal appeals court temporarily halted a proposed six-day extension for counting absentee ballots.
2. Voter “deterrence”
Britain’s Channel 4 News just released a damning report on the Trump campaign’s use of voter “deterrence” during the 2016 election. In short, the tactic gathered data on almost 200 million voters, identified certain groups that the campaign sought to keep at home on Election Day, and hit those groups with targeted ads on Facebook and other social media platforms. A total of 3.5 million Black voters were marked for “deterrence.” Channel 4 further explains that “in Wisconsin, Black people constitute just 5.4% of the population but made up 17% of ‘Deterrence.'”
Watch the Milwaukee-specific portion of the report here:
3. A pandemic
It’s still happening. It’s getting worse. The state’s mask order could be tossed out any day now. Be safe, Milwaukee.
THE DICEY
1. Counting ballots before Election Day
As of right now, clerks can’t count absentee ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. So, with millions of absentee ballots expected this time around, wouldn’t it be nice to count them sooner? Of course it would! Hell, even Sen. Ron Johnson thinks it’s a good idea!
“I think we should change the law so the ballots can be counted well before Election Day, so that Wisconsin results are known by 9, 10, 11 o’clock on Election Day, so Wisconsin isn’t part of the problem,” Johnson recently told WISN. Huh! The dicey part? According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “legislative leaders have indicated no plan to meet before the election.”
2. Purging voter rolls (but not in time for this election)
It wouldn’t be an election without an effort to purge folks from voter rolls because they may have moved. The state Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments in just such a case, which seeks to de-register 100,000 Wisconsin voters. “Those trying to take people off the list say they believe the list is largely accurate and anyone wrongly removed from the voting rolls could easily re-register to vote,” says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Meanwhile, one recent analysis of the list contends thousands of people on it didn’t actually move.”
What puts this in the “Dicey” and not “Bad” category? A ruling one way or the other isn’t expected until after the November 3 election. Hardly a victory, but we’ll take it.