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Leaders plan absentee vote efforts
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by Alexandra Rogers
Friday, March 2, 2007
Efforts to get students to vote absentee this April are being planned and will soon be underway.
Representatives from the Madison city clerk's office, the University of Wisconsin and multiple student organizations met Thursday to discuss strategies to improve student voter turnout during the upcoming election.
There is concern among many city officials that the election — which will be held during UW's spring recess — will have low voter turnout. As a result, promotion of absentee voting to students across campus has become a major effort.
"I think face-to-face communication is the best way to get students to vote," said UW senior Brian Shactman, who also serves as campaign manager for District 8 aldermanic candidate Eli Judge.
Lamarr Billups, senior special assistant in the chancellor's office, said applications for the absentee ballots will be available to students with stamps included.
However, UW freshman Andrew Gordon said he is concerned about student motivation for this type of voting.
"One week before spring break happens, your mind is everywhere but school and voting," Gordon said.
Nevertheless, discussion centered on efforts to make absentee voting clear-cut and simple for students. One student suggested offering students incentives to vote.
Many incentive avenues were discussed — including recruiting UW basketball players, Bucky Badger or Barry Alvarez to help promote the student vote.
To vote absentee, a person must already be registered to vote. Absentee ballots can be sent to voters, or they can vote in person at the county clerk's office.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he was "thrilled" about the ideas presented at Thursday's meeting.
"I was very excited at the turnout tonight, and moreover the tremendous feedback," Verveer said. "I think there were a number of really awesome ideas that were brought up tonight that, frankly, we hadn't thought about in our earlier planning meetings."
Verveer added he is appreciative that the chancellor's office has taken these ideas seriously. The chancellor's office has also agreed to help fund shuttle vans to take students to and from the city clerk's office.
The city clerk has agreed to hold extended hours on the two Saturdays before spring break. City clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl pledged to keep the office open for extended hours in order to increase voter turnout.
"If you call and tell me you're going to vote, we'll be open," Witzel-Behl joked.
The city clerk's office will also hold extended hours from March 26-29. The office will stay open until 6:30 p.m. during extended hours.
Other ideas discussed to get out the vote included improvement of the election website, phone banking, and multiple rounds of mass e-mails alerting students to the election and their voting options.
Anonymous (March 2, 2007 @ 10:02am):
Brian Shactman? You shuck!
Anonymous (March 2, 2007 @ 11:06am):
Was the King/Woods campaign absent from the meeting?
It wouldn't surprise me, seeing as there's no point in talking about absentee votes if no one is going to vote for you.
Anonymous (March 2, 2007 @ 6:07pm):
Andy's such a cute freshman!
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