City-County Building
The City County Building will be one of 14 sites in Madison for early voting.
Marley Vogel is one of many UW-Madison students whose voting plan for the April election was upended when the pandemic hit. After being moved off campus in mid-March and returning to New Jersey, Vogel spent three weeks attempting to request a new absentee ballot.
The UW junior, who planned to return to Madison when she could, wanted to vote: “The officials being voted in here were going to represent me for nine out of 12 months of the year,” she says. “I wanted to make sure I chose who was going to represent me.”
But Vogel never received a ballot.
Now back at school, Vogel is determined to avoid a similar mishap. Today she will be casting her ballot at UW’s Memorial Union. “I am planning on voting early and have encouraged my friends to do so just to ensure that my ballot is counted,” says Vogel. “I feel more comfortable getting my ballot in now than on Election Day.”
Vogel says she is glad to be able to vote in a location on campus and avoid any hassles associated with mail-in voting or voting on Election Day. “It is much less stressful when you don’t have to worry about long lines or mailing it in wrong.”
In-person early voting, also called “in-person absentee voting” runs Oct. 20-Nov. 1 at 14 sites in the city of Madison. Early voting sites include the city clerk’s office, some Madison Public Library locations, UW-Madison Memorial Union and Union South. Voters not already registered to vote at their current address may register, with proof of residence, through Oct. 30; per state law, voter registration is not allowed on Oct. 31 or Nov. 1 (there is same-day registration on Election Day). Voters can also submit absentee ballots at these sites.
Milwaukee will host 16 sites. Earlier this month, the city decided to shelve plans to stage early voting sites at Fiserv Forum and Miller Park due to fears of a legal challenge and, according to Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, over concerns that the sites were designated later than required by state law.
What to expect
In-person absentee voting sites in Madison will primarily be drive-up or outdoors per the advice of the public health department. Upon arriving, voters will have their voter ID checked by poll workers and be provided an absentee envelope to fill out on a clipboard that is disinfected after each use; voters will also sign their envelope in the presence of the poll worker.
The clerk’s office recommends that voters bring their own ballpoint pen if possible.
According to the clerk’s office, all ballots collected during the early voting period will be brought to the clerk's office in a bag with a tamper-evident seal. They will remain sealed in their envelopes until delivered to their proper polling locations for processing on Election Day; there they will be run through the tabulator to be counted.
This year, early voting in other states, including Ohio, Georgia and Texas, has drawn long lines. According to the U.S Elections Project, nearly 853,000 absentee ballots have already been cast in Wisconsin and 30 million have been collected nationwide; those votes alone account for nearly 22 percent of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election, when 137.5 million ballots were cast.
More than 100,000 absentee ballots have already been collected in Madison, according to the clerk’s office. City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl says that the office has worked hard to improve accessibility to voting and make the process as efficient as possible. Voting early, she says, is protection against the uncertainties posed by COVID-19.
“Given the pandemic, voting early ensures that a sudden quarantine or isolation won’t stop you from voting,” Witzel-Behl says. “Our goal is that each eligible voter will be able to cast a ballot and have that ballot counted.”
