David Michael Miller
When UW senior Charlie Allworth contemplates moving day on Aug. 14, he thinks of two things: stress and his beard.
“The beard is nice to stroke as I meditate on the unmitigated shitshow that is the prospect of having primaries on the day I’m supposed to move all of my belongings,” Allworth says.
This year, the Wisconsin primary falls on move out day. Even without a primary, it’s a day many students approach with dread as they frantically depart their old apartment for new digs. Often the new apartment is not ready until Aug. 15, so some students crash with friends or take a trip out of town.
This year Allworth is planning to wake up at 6 a.m., make sure his three-bedroom apartment is clean, and, with the help of some friends, move boxes, three TV’s and an organ down nine flights of stairs. He’s not yet sure where he will store the stuff for a day — he can’t get into his new apartment until Aug. 15. But he hopes to be done by 4 p.m., which would leave him one hour to scarf down something to eat and vote before work at 5 p.m.
“I’m going to do it because I’m passionate, but it’s going to be stressful,” he says.
Allworth will need to vote at the polling place where he is registered under his current address. Under Wisconsin law, if you change your address, you must re-register to vote and have lived at the new address for 10 consecutive days to be eligible to vote in that new voting district. This requirement could prove challenging for UW students who are moving on Aug. 14 and won’t have an updated address, says Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell. Although it's rare for moving day to happen on an election, it does sometimes occur — McDonell won a primary on Aug. 14, 2012.
Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center, agrees the timing could prove “extremely disruptive” to students and keep them away from the polls. “The elections will likely be on the back burner relative to other immediate concerns [for students] and force them to think ahead given the disruption.”
Anticipating problems, McDonell, Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl and administrators from UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Election Commission met in April to coordinate ways to best inform students on how they could still vote in the primary.
One option is to vote absentee. Students can request an absentee ballot from the city clerk’s office through email or mail. Another option is to vote early, technically called “in-person absentee voting.” Early voting at Madison libraries runs July 30–Aug. 11 and at three campus buildings (Union South, Memorial Union and the Student Activity Center) Aug. 6–9. Early voting is already underway at the Madison city clerk’s office, ending the weekend before Election Day.
Before students left in May for the summer, the university put information about voting in August in residence halls and the student newsletter, The Weekly. The university also created and promoted an informational video for students on how to vote absentee, and has been using its social media platforms to inform Badgers about the August primary.
Meredith McGlone, a spokesperson for UW, says the university also plans to send out an email the day before the election reminding students of voting procedures.
BadgersVote, which informs students on Twitter about voting issues, will continue to remind students of the upcoming primary, says Beth Alleman, voter coordinator for Associated Students of Madison.
Madison’s city clerk shared UW’s informational video on Twitter and has been tweeting information about where to vote, who is on the ballot and how to utilize early voting options for the upcoming primary. Witzel-Behl says her office has already received 3,321 absentee ballot requests; the office will continue to mail ballots out through the Thursday before the election. Ballots must be received back in time to be delivered to the polls on Election Day.
Allworth, a two-year veteran of the Badger moving season and an avid voter, was not aware of any of these efforts to reach out to students. He says he hasn’t seen notices on social media or on flyers around campus. “If I’m talking about actually getting people to the polls, I would prefer to see signs outside of every library that’s going to be a polling location, have heard a knock on my door, been given a call,” he says. “If I don’t see huge signs and drives outside of Campus Mall, in all likelihood I’m not going to find out about it.”
Historically, primaries tend to be low turnout races for students, says Burden. But this voting bloc still has the potential to be consequential in the August primary, he adds, noting student voters could be pivotal in helping decide which of the eight Democratic gubernatorial candidates prevails.
“It is possible that the winner of the Democratic primary for governor will only earn 20 or 25 percent of the vote,” Burden says. “With such a slim margin of victory possible, students’ votes could be important in selecting the winner. Many students are engaged with the Democratic nomination for governor, so turnout could be up in student wards.”
Brian Canup, an ambassador for Vote Everywhere, agrees students might be motivated to vote in the primary. The recent elections in April, which included a Supreme Court race, garnered one of the highest turnouts for a non-presidential local race in Madison: Turnout was 32.5 percent, up from a non-presidential election average of 21.5 percent, Canup says.
Vote Everywhere, a non-partisan student group, holds voter registration drives and sets up informational tables to increase civic engagement on campus. Since Canup started working as an ambassador last fall, he’s seen more students ask about voting and show they want to be involved in the upcoming elections.
“When we’ve registered people to vote, there’s definitely more opinions being voiced and people are more excited to voice those opinions at the polls,” says Canup.
Allworth is determined to make it to the polls on Aug. 14 and drag his friends with him; he’ll also text his friends out of town to vote. “I’ve heard a lot of people say their vote doesn’t count, or that they are frustrated with politics in general, but I think it’s really irresponsible to say you shouldn’t vote,” Allworth says.
Those, like himself, with privilege and comfort need to act for those who have neither, he says. “They need our help.”
To learn more about how to request an absentee ballot or to early vote, visit vote.wisc.edu.
To learn more about the candidates on the ballot and where you can vote, visit myvote.wi.gov.
Editor's note: This article was corrected to note that early voting is available at all of Madison's public libraries. The story also incorrectly stated that this is the first year moving day has fallen on a primary — it has been edited to note that McDonell won a primary on moving day in 2012.
