Morgridge Center for Public Service is hosting voter registration events this week at various campus event centers. The event centers include Union South, the Red Gym, Grainger Hall, Engineering Hall and other campus buildings. Students can register to vote between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the designated event location of the day.
University of Wisconsin Professor of Political Science and Director of the Elections Research Center Barry Burden emphasized the importance of the student vote.
“Your vote matters a lot because it can help decide the outcome of statewide elections,” Burden said. “The last two presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by about 20,000 votes, so students at UW and other campuses around the state easily could account for the difference between the two presidential candidates.”
In 2020, UW’s voting rate was higher than the 66% rate of all colleges and universities, measured in a report from the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education. Many initiatives contribute to UW’s voter turnout, like BadgersVote and Campus Vote Project.
Wisconsin is one of seven swing states expected to play a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. News.
To be considered a “swing state,” the state must be a battleground, competitive, a bellwether and have a flippability factor, according to NPR.
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have visited Wisconsin repeatedly in the last few weeks, and are expected to continue their visits, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump visited Mosinee on Saturday, Sep. 7, while Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz is visiting Wisconsin again on Friday, Sep. 13.
Burden expects a strong voter turnout from UW students, considering Wisconsin’s role as a battleground state and the differences between the presidential nominees’s policies.
“The differences between the candidates at the presidential level are pretty stark,” Burden says. “They’re different in every way, their backgrounds, their style of governing, their policy positions, their experiences, really, every aspect of them, so I think students, many of whom are going to be voting for the first time, are really going to take note of that and will get involved.”
Upcoming voter registration events can be found on UW’s event calendar. In addition to voter registration events this week, Union South and Memorial Union are hosting Presidential Debate Watch events from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Tuesday.
