Madison prepares for August election with lessons learned from spring
The city is working to improve safety and accessibility for their second election during a pandemic.
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Just two weeks ahead of Wisconsin’s August primary, the city of Madison already expects high turnout. The clerk’s office has already issued 70,000 absentee ballots requested by mail - up to 1,700 a day.
The city is also acting on lessons learned from the state’s spring election to prepare.
“One of the big things we learned in April was that voting by mail does not work for everybody,” said City of Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl, adding, “There are areas of the city where there’s a greater need for opportunities to cast absentee ballot in person and to vote in person on Election Day.”
To expand in-person voting, the clerk’s office set up several drive-up early voting sites across the city, starting Tuesday.
“What’s different is we are exclusively outside,” said Karen Mayeshiba, a poll worker at one of these sites.
The decision to have all the early voting locations outside was made based on guidance from Public Health, Witzel-Behl said.
Any registered voter in the city of Madison can walk up or drive up to any of these locations, present their ID and poll workers will set them up with the right ballot.
Poll workers can also act as a witness for absentee ballots, and voters can drop off absentee ballots they received in the mail at early voting sites as well.
“As long as you’re a city of Madison resident, we can also register you to vote,” Mayeshiba added.
Things will also look different on Election Day, August 11.
“April we had 66 polling places, down from our usual 92,” Witzel-Behl said, adding the city is working to add more polling locations. “We’re going to have as many as we possibly can.”
Witzel-Behl said August elections usually have 89 polling places, and the city has almost reached that number.
Hundreds of poll workers have cancelled their shifts, but Witzel-Behl said new volunteers are signing up to fill that gap.
“I’ve talked to some people who’ve said that they’re signing up to work at the polls because they know their mom or grandma isn’t able to do so,” Witzel-Behl explained.
The city is also planning to use additional personal protective equipment like masks for all poll workers and more plexiglass screens to protect staff and voters.
“We’ll also have plexiglass screens for the registration table, which we did not have for the April election,” Witzel-Behl explained.
City staff said they just want to make sure everyone can safely make their voices heard.
“This is a foundation of our country, we choose our leaders,” Mayeshiba said.
In-person absentee voting is available through August 8. For a complete list of locations and hours and a list of acceptable photo IDs, click here.
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