University of Wisconsin students are able to register and vote early for the Nov. 8 midterm from Oct. 25 through Nov. 4 at the Memorial Union and Union South from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the UW’s voter information site.
The midterm will include races for governor, Congress, State Legislature, attorney general and partisan county races.
The Campus Vote Project is a national initiative that works with over 400 universities and colleges across the country and their administrations in an effort to get college students to vote, Campus Vote Wisconsin state coordinator Kristin Hansen said.
The project collaborates with BadgersVote, an initiative created by the UW Morgridge Center for Public Service, to educate voters, Hansen said.
“The BadgerVotes coalition and the Morgridge Center are the primary movers on UW- Madison’s campus when it comes to voting,” Hansen said.
Some parts of the voting process can be more complicated for college students than for the general voting population, City of Madison election official Alex Cohn — who was working at Memorial Union on Tuesday — said.
Providing proof of residence can be more complicated for students who aren’t from the city of Madison, but UW has done a lot to make voting easier, Cohn said. So far, he has seen a steady turnout this year on campus.
“They have resources in place that would let people actually get a proof of residence document pretty quickly, because UW is a government agency,” Cohn said.
According to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement Report from Tufts University on the 2014 and 2018 elections, UW student voter turnout was 56% in 2018 — the last midterm election — greatly surpassing the national average of 38.5%.
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College students are the second largest voting block in Wisconsin after Milwaukee, Hansen said. Voting is a civic duty, and making sure that your voice is counted is indispensable.
“Get in the habit of voting as soon as you turn 18,” Hansen said. “Vote in every election, especially the spring elections when it’s the local election.”
