By Nora-Kathleen Berryhill
Oct. 10, 2020
UPDATE: clerks can no longer email ballots to voters.
Edgewood College will offer on-campus voting and voter registration on the first floor of the Oscar Rennebohm Library on Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 3).
Early voting will also be available Oct. 26 through Oct. 30 outside of Predolin Humanities Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Edgewood students who live on campus as well as other residents of Ward 65 can vote at the new location.
Wisconsin law requires both a photo ID and proof of address in order to register to vote in the state. Edgewood College Residence Life has submitted an updated list of on-campus residents to the Madison City Clerk’s Office, which will act as proof of address for those residents.
This means that on-campus residents at Edgewood College who still need to register to vote in Wisconsin will only need to bring a valid photo ID with them. Edgewood College student IDs meet the state’s criteria for photo IDs, which are listed here: https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/PhotoIDRequired.
Students who live off-campus and commute, however, will need to bring their own proof of address along with a valid photo ID to vote. Depending on how far from campus they live, their polling place will likely not be at the campus location.
President Andrew Manion told OTE that voting is important. “There is nothing more fundamental to participating in our democracy than voting, which is a right that Americans have cherished for over two centuries,” he said.
“This college has an excellent history of voter participation in previous elections, and I expect this year will be no exception. While Edgewood College is prohibited from endorsing any particular political candidates, I encourage all students (and employees) to make a plan to vote and to vote according to their conscience.”
“All employees will be given time to vote on Election Day if they need and request it.”
Edgewood College students registered to vote in the state of Wisconsin can also request a mail-in ballot online and track its status at https://myvote.wi.gov/en-US/VoteAbsentee.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin provides the following on their website about Wisconsin’s current deadlines for mail-in voting:
Out-of-state students who are registered to vote in their home state can use this link to see National Public Radio (NPR’s) map of voting rules and deadlines: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/14/909338758/map-mail-in-voting-rules-by-state. Note that updates to the map are listed below it.
In the first 2020 presidential debate, President Donald Trump claimed that mail-in ballots were being “dumped in rivers” and that “it’s a rigged election.” His claims about mail-in voting have been largely discredited in fact-checks by news organizations including The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/article/fact-checking-mail-in-voting.html?searchResultPosition=3.
“It is safe, it is effective, and there is not fraud,” Edgewood political science professor Steven Davis said about mail-in voting.
Davis spoke to the long history of mail-in voting in the U.S., mentioning states such as Washington, which has had universal mail-in voting since 2011 and hasn’t found any substantial evidence of voter impersonation.
Davis referred to a study by The Washington Post which found only 31 credible cases of impersonation fraud out of more than a billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014.“It is an error rate that is so infinitesimal,” Davis said.
The only difference this year, Davis said, is the increased volume of mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. Voters should anticipate that the election results will not be finalized until all mail-in ballots are accounted for, which due to varying state laws could potentially take days or weeks after Election Day. “As long as people know that, they won’t have expectations that are unrealistic,” he said.
Trump has said that mail-in ballots could be lost or tampered with. Davis said there are security measures in place to protect the integrity of mail-in ballots.
“They’re never outside the possession of the Election Commission,” Davis said. “They’re never just sitting around. They’re dropped off at the proper precinct to be opened, checked off of the list of voters, and put into the machines like any other ballot.”
Davis said if students are still concerned about their mail-in ballot, they can always drop theirs off to one of Madison’s many approved ballot drop-off sites: https://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/elections-voting/voting/vote-absentee/ballot-drop-off-sites.
Poll workers are available at these sites to answer questions and serve as a witness if needed.
While there is currently no need for student poll workers at the moment, Hollie McCrea Olson and Heather Harbach said students can help.
“If students can commit to asking three other people to register and vote by Nov. 3,” said Harbach. “That will make a big difference in Edgewood College’s voting participation rate, which has historically been among the highest in the country for colleges and universities.”
A virtual voter rally for Wisconsin students, hosted Tuesday (Oct. 6) by former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, focused on the theme of youth participation in the election.
“I often find that I don’t have to encourage young people to do anything,” O’Rourke said, adding student activists have been front and center on issues of climate change, police accountability, and immigration. “I’m optimistic and hopeful because of you. You just have to know that it’s recognized.”
Emi Almanza Lopez, campus organizer for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin at UW-Milwaukee, also spoke at the rally. She said that in swing states like Wisconsin, “the youth vote will determine this election’s outcome.”
Zenab Nafid, a junior and political science major at Edgewood College, described what she would say to students who feel that their vote won’t make a difference:
“We are the newest members of our democracy,” Nafid said. “We can help change these historical trends we are so against and can change our country to fight for what we believe in. Our vote matters. It matters in what legislation we wish to see happen. It matters in the future of immigration and women’s rights. We need to take total control of our future through this election.”
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