Tuesday was a big day for Reverend Gregory Lewis.
“We are here on a holiday,” he said, laughing. “Early voting. First day!”
Lewis is the president and co-founder of Souls to the Polls, a Milwaukee nonprofit focused on increasing voter turnout in the Black community. He spent the holiday morning outside an early voting spot in Capitol Heights, the Midtown shopping center.
Volunteer drivers were shuttling in voters in need of a ride to the polls: elderly folks, people with disabilities, others who don’t have a car or bus fare. Or, maybe someone who just wanted a buddy to vote with.
“We’ll give you a ride to vote for free,” Lewis said. “Not only will we give you a ride to vote, we’ll wait for you to vote, and then give you a ride home. We become friends!”
It’s not about who you vote for either, said Lewis, whose organization is nonpartisan. He just wants everyone to do it.
Statewide, there’s a seat up for grabs on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In Milwaukee, there are several races for Common Council and school board seats.
Early voting runs through February 18, with the primary on February 21. For the Supreme Court race, the top two candidates with the most votes will move on to face each other in the general election on April 4.
To learn more about early voting, I spoke with Tara McMenamin, a city clerk and treasury manager for the city of Racine. Our conversation is below and edited for clarity.
Early voting kicked off on Tuesday. We’re a couple days in. What are the different options that people have to early vote?
You can request an absentee ballot via mail. One way to do it is go to myvote.wi.gov. And myvote actually helps you request your absentee ballot right there online.
Your local municipalities typically have a couple different options. I suggest checking with your local village, town, or city and seeing what their hours, dates, and times of locations that you might be able to go and vote in person.
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Can people register to vote at the same time that they're trying to vote early? Or do you need to be registered in advance?
Wisconsin has same day registration, even on election day. Right now, you can come in and register and vote as long as you have all the proper paperwork and backup documentation. You can also do that on election day. We don't want people to be deterred by thinking, ‘Oh, it's election day, it's too late.’ It's not too late. The only day there's not voting is the Sunday and the Monday before the election.
Wisconsin voting laws changed a bit over the last election season, and there's still ongoing lawsuits over whether absentee ballots missing parts of addresses can be counted. Do you have tips for making sure that your vote gets counted if someone chooses to vote with an absentee ballot by mail?
The thing I can suggest the most is going on myvote.wi.gov. It actually tells you once we've received your absentee ballot. If you're concerned that it hasn't been received, or you're wondering if you filled it out right, you can go right onto that website and type in your information. It'll let you know if we're gonna go ahead and mail that back to you [if there are issues]. But I always suggest getting it in early. If you have to mail it, the earlier you do it, the more time we have to review it and reach back out to you if there is an issue. It's always those last-minute ones that we get caught in a time crunch.
What if someone needs assistance to drop off a ballot?
We obviously don't offer assistance to help get people here. However, they can request that someone help them. If they're a voter with a disability or has mobility trouble getting here, they are allowed to ask someone to drop off their absentee ballot for them.
I will go ahead and give the disclaimer that that law is being challenged. Right, and that we should keep up to date with what case law and what the courts are saying. But as of today, right now, you can have someone help you, as long as it's not your employer or or the leader of your union.
I think clerks in Wisconsin are getting used to the ever-changing flow of election laws. But I always just say, if you have questions, give us a call. It's what we're here for. We can make sure your vote counts. Please do give us a call. I would rather have citizens call or sending us emails, then be unsure or feel like they don't know. This should be something that we feel confident in, [that] we can get our vote in and we can help promote democracy.
Editor’s note: Chuck Quirmbach contributed reporting.
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