MADISON, Wis. — City officials and other Madison leaders gathered Friday morning to urge people to vote early in order to avoid long lines and other unexpected events on Election Day.
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway joined representatives from the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, and others outside the Madison Municipal Building to emphasize the importance of making sure voters’ voices are heard.
“You should vote early because it’s easy, you should vote early because it’s convenient, you should vote early because it’s secure, you should vote early because who knows what is going to happen between now and Election Day in your life that might keep you from going to the polls,” Mayor Rhodes-Conway said. “Give yourself time. Get your vote counted. Vote early.”
The City of Madison has dozens of early voting locations, with dates and times varying by location.
RELATED: Everything you need to know about early voting in Madison, which starts Oct. 25
Voters can go to any early voting location in the city to vote in-person absentee, as opposed to Election Day, where they need to go to their designated polling place. Voters can also register at the polls when voting early, with the exception of the weekend before Election Day.
All in-person absentee voting will be conducted using the ExpressVote ballot marking machines, which city officials say help people who may have accessibility concerns vote more easily.
“We believe here in the City of Madison that it should be easy, it should be safe, it should be secure for every single eligible voter to cast their ballot,” Mayor Rhodes-Conway said about the voting system.
When voting, a poll worker will help voters insert the ballot into the ExpressVote machine, which will mark the ballot based on the selections made on the touch screen. The poll worker will step back after helping insert the ballot to give the voter privacy while they mark their votes. When the voter has made all of their selections, the machine will return the ballot with the selections filled in. Voters will have the opportunity to make sure all of the selections are correct before putting the ballot into the absentee ballot envelope.
At the end of the day, the absentee ballots collected at each location are put into a courier bag with a tamper-evident seal. The absentee voting clerk and the courier both verify the number of absentee ballots inside the bag and the number on the seal. They will then document the unique serial number on the seal and the number of absentee ballots inside on a chain-of-custody form to ensure every absentee ballot is taken to the clerk’s office.
Absentee ballots remain sealed in their envelope and secured in the clerk’s office until being delivered to the voter’s polling places to be counted on Election Day. Under state law, absentee ballots cannot be counted until Election Day.
You can find a list of early voting locations in Madison here and find more voter information and resources on Channel 3000’s Elections page.
COPYRIGHT 2022 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
