Losing to Minnesota in any capacity sucks. Let’s face it — Bucky Badger is objectively more iconic than their sorry buck-toothed imitation, our cheese curds are better and the University of Wisconsin’s sizable margin over the University of Minnesota in university rankings speaks for itself. Yeah, we might have re-secured Paul Bunyan’s Axe last year in the football game against Minnesota at Camp Randall, but when it comes to events where things really matter beyond a simple question of school rivalry — like voting in elections — Minnesota continues to run away with the hardware.
The Big Ten Voting Challenge, established in 2017, is a friendly competition between Big Ten member schools to measure student voter turnout and participation with the hopes of increasing civic engagement across the conference. To date, Minnesota has won in both the 2020 and 2022 elections — drawing out students at a higher rate than any other school in the Big Ten.
Despite the Badgers’ lack of podium presence at the Voting Challenge, UW students still have impressive rates of voter turnout. According to data from the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, UW boasted a 72.8% voter turnout during the 2020 election — more than 6% better than the national campus average and up 7.4% since 2016. Reports from the 2022 election have not been released, but there are indicators that student turnout rates remained high.
These commendable statistics are due in large part to the efforts of campus resources and election organizers. Initiatives like BadgersVote are especially instrumental in guiding students through the voter registration process and to the polls. UW junior Laine Bottemiller wrote an article in Forbes highlighting BadgersVote’s impact on drawing out a record-breaking number of young voters out for the most recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
But, barriers to voting for students at UW are significant enough to have a measurable impact on voter turnout. Every year, thousands of voting-eligible students move into on-campus housing for the first time. Many more who already live off-campus move to different apartments or houses before the start of the semester. Each move means voters have to either register for the first time or re-register at a new address. This translates into new polling locations and new elected positions to vote for — just another obstacle that may deter young college students who may lack an already strong, developed sense of civic duty or political stances.
Clearly then, institutional support for new voters — or those unfamiliar with election laws in Wisconsin — is critical in boosting turnout rates for UW students. Beyond the BadgersVote program, UW established an online website that streamlines a comprehensive overview of all things student voting for the campus community. This site remains indispensable in guiding students through the voting process, from jumping common hurdles in registration, all the way to polling. Yet for UW to beat its own record in student voting something else needs to enter into the equation.
Though the state of Wisconsin does not recognize an official Election Day holiday, the Universities of Wisconsin should break with state policy and cancel classes on Election Day — in the fall and spring. In doing this, UW would join its Midwestern neighbors Illinois, Michigan and Indiana in ensuring students are even less inconvenienced in making a trip to their polling locations on Election Day by canceling classes. Sure, choosing to cancel classes on days that may fall in the middle of the week may cause a minor disruption in professors’ syllabi, but the gains from an increase in voter turnout — for students, staff and faculty — would prove invaluable for our voices to be heard at the ballot box.
For those in the UW community who commute relatively far distances from where they live to attend class or work on campus, traveling to their designated polling places becomes a major headache. Throw in a combination of midterms, class assignments or even poor weather conditions, and suddenly voting quickly falls down on the priority list for many. Canceling class on Election Day would be an easy fix to resolve these potential obstacles to voting.
With the Wisconsin GOP-led attempts to crack down on absentee and mail-in ballots in recent years, expanding accessibility and improving the convenience factor to in-person voting on Election Day becomes that much more important. While UW is already active in promoting these early voting practices, ballots cast in this manner may be less secure than those cast in person in the event of successful Republican political maneuvering that seeks to disqualify mail-in ballots.
Democratic veto power in Gov. Tony Evers’ hands is one of the only remaining checks preventing full-scale conservative attacks on early voting. In-person voting then becomes increasingly important for voters throughout the state and here on the UW campus.
By going one step further and establishing an Election Day holiday, university administrators can protect our collective democratic voice and opportunities to get to the polls — and hopefully break Minnesota’s Voting Challenge winning streak in the process.
Jack Rogers ([email protected]) is a sophomore studying Chinese, economics and political science.
