WORT 89.9FM Madison

Make A Plan To Vote

Host of the Friday Eight O'Clock Buzz Andy Moore speaks with Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell about the upcoming election and the different ways Wisconsinites can vote. McDonell stresses the importance of planning ahead, encouraging voters to take advantage of in-person absentee voting, which begins two weeks before Election Day. He walks through the process of voter registration, noting that residents can register online at MyVote.wi.gov, by mail, or in person at designated locations. McDonell also clarifies what documentation voters need, such as proof of residence, and provides a timeline for when registration and absentee ballots must be completed. In light of the July 2024 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision reinstating ballot drop boxes, McDonell explains how they can be used to return absentee ballots, ensuring that voting remains accessible to all, including those with disabilities. He also touches on the disparity in voter turnout between younger and older age groups, urging young people to engage in the process. Despite the increasing doubts cast on election integrity in recent years, McDonell reassures listeners that the process in Dane County is secure and well-managed. GO VOTE! Visit MyVote.wi.gov to learn more.

Broadcast on:: 20 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hi, I'm Andy Moore, your Friday host of 8 o'clock buzz. Thanks for spending your mornings with us. We love bringing you this blend of art, and music, and news, and politics, and more. In return, we ask that you spend a little to support this show. And it's easy, go to w-o-r-t-f-m.org/donate. And a little over a month, a great fear will overtake the nation. Dark rituals will emerge. Screams and shrieks will fill the night. I'm talking, of course, about Halloween. But you thought there for a minute, I bet that I was talking about election day, didn't you? No, there's no need to fear election day. But you've got to have a plan. You've got to have a plan to vote. And in Wisconsin, fortunately, there are several ways to vote. In fact, in-person absentee voting starts two weeks before election day here. So that's approaching a fast-moving terrain. So to get a plan going, to get your plan going, and it's important to look at your own plans to make that vote, cast that vote. But also, look up and down the street for neighbors who might need some guidance and getting their plan together to-- we're all in this together. We have a vote 101 conversation now with the guidance of Dane County Clerk Scott McDonald, who joins us by phone. I think he's on the air. Good morning, Scott. Welcome to the Friday buzz. Are you there? Yeah, good morning. Oh, excellent. I imagine you're anticipating a large turnout this election. What was the Dane County turnout for the presidential election in 2020? Yeah, it was close to 90% in 2020. And we expect turnout to be exceptionally high this time as well. We've ordered extra ballots and made sure that we're ready for it. Did you see this article in "The New York Times" this morning going into great depth and detail about the voting block that is Dane County? I did not. I have not seen that article yet. It's pretty fascinating. They make the case-- the writers make the case that Dane County is perfectly capable of making the difference between a win or a loss in the presidential election. Would you agree with that? Well, yeah. I mean, if you look across the state of Wisconsin, growth in other areas of the state is pretty flat. Maybe it's declined slightly. We add 6,000 to 8,000 people every year. So even just from four years ago, you can do the math. That's a lot of voters. Yes. So that you just do the math. You say, OK, 70% to 80% of them or more are going to vote Democratic, just based on demographics. That outstrips the margin from four years ago. The story and the times that I brought up-- and I'm sorry if I took you by surprise with that, but I know you'll get around to reading it. But it makes somewhat of the same point that you're making the county with tech career opportunities and so forth. And clean industries are attracting young, progressive-minded people to Dane County. And those numbers, as you say, are really swelling for newcomers and old timers. There are several ways to register to vote in the Badger State Walkers through those avenues, if you would, please. Yeah, so the old school version is we are a same-day voter registration state. We're only a couple of those in the country. And you can register on election day. If you bring in a photo ID, for example, your Wisconsin driver's license, passports, and all that. And then you have a piece of mail, like a utility bill, a bank statement, a lease. And it can be on your phone. You can register on the same day you vote. And that's an important thing for us, because a lot of states don't have that. And then the other thing I'd say is you can register online using myvote.wi.gov. And everyone should bookmark that site. I use it all the time, not only for registration, but knowing where my polling place is, because it can move. Seeing what's on my ballot. We had redistricting, so your district might have changed. You might be voting for different people and not realize it. And it'll track your absentee ballot. So if you request it, it'll say, yes, we received your request. It's been mailed to you. You should expect it. Now we'll know if there's something wrong. So everyone should bookmark that site. It's a really well-designed site. Scott, is that also where you can go to obtain an absentee ballot online? Yes, you can request it through myvote. I'm going to say it as you did, myvote.wi.gov. And boy, you got that right. It is truly a one-stop place. And it's a very accessible, to my way of thinking. Yeah. And one of the nice things about it, too, and it's sort of a quirk of the state law. If you take a picture-- so I go to it from my mobile phone. And if you take a picture of your driver's license and upload it to the site, you only have to do that once. And then you can-- 10 years from now, it'll say you've supplied a driver's license and you've checked that box of an ID. So everyone should do that. It protects you in case something's going on. You can't get all of your ID. And you might say, when would that happen? I don't know, four years ago? Right. Will you mention the 10 years into the future? How long did a voter registration last? What's a person's enrollment? Yeah, I mean, it will deactivate you if you don't vote. So there's like a four-year cycle where it cleanses the data, which is good, because especially with this many students moving in and out, it would be too many people on there. But as long as you vote in November elections-- I mean, I urge people to vote in all the elections. But it'll keep you active as long as you're doing that. Well, in more detail through the absentee ballot process, I think a lot of people in the 608 are anxious to vote, and I would anticipate that people are going to want to get going on that. Well, before I get to that, let me just say that the best way from my point of view to vote is early in person. And let me explain why. So the way Wisconsin law works, there is an early voting. There's early in-person absentee voting. So in Madison, for example, you can vote any of the libraries the two weeks before the election. Go in. You can register if you need to. Change your address. Let's say you move, people move. And then you can vote. And the benefit of that is you know that the witness part of it and the address is all acceptable and will be counted. If you remember, sometimes people were filling out their absentee envelopes incorrectly, and then they would get excluded. They might forget to sign it, something like that. None of that happens when you vote in-person absentee. You're not going to be affected on election day by bad weather, by having some personal problem come up, whatever it might be. So you have that whole two weeks to vote early. And I just think, by far, that's the best way to vote. That way, you can pick your own time that works for you. They even have night hours at the library and so you can, you know, after work. And you know that it will be properly counted and it was received. I mean, the mail, I worry about the US mail. I think our local people do a good job, but we all know the mail isn't what it used to be. So, yeah. - Fair enough. What can you tell us about ballot accessibility for voters with disabilities? - Yeah, every single polling place in Dane County has an accessible machine that the best and the newest ones called Express Votes. They will help you if you need their set up for people who have problems with sight or sound. And for example, they'll make the ballot extremely large so that you can read it and you just touch screen it. So they're really good. And they also, every single polling place has Spanish as another option. We're the only municipality in the country that does that voluntarily. So has Spanish in every single polling place. So, yeah, we have, you know, fortunately the county board sprung for that and we have really good equipment for people with disabilities. If you're just joining us, I'm talking with Dane County Clerk Scott McDonald. Ballot drop boxes in July, as you well know, the state's High Court reversed a ban on ballot drop boxes. So they're legal again. Talk about what people should know about the drop boxes as an option. - Yeah, well, let's just take Madison as an example. If you wanna, let's say you get your absentee ballot back in the mail, you know, not back, but you ask for it, you receive it and it's kind of close to that last weekend. Maybe the Friday or Saturday before Tuesday. That's when I would say if you can use a drop box because you know it'll be received by the clerk's office in time. The, you know, 'cause all our mail goes to Milwaukee and comes back. And, you know, the drop boxes, they have a chain of custody. They're locked. They're more secure than a postal mailbox. So I think everyone should trust them. And Madison, for example, they're in front of fire stations with a camera and there's, you know, people at that fire station 24/7. So I think we have a good setup here. The one thing I would say though, is that it is not a requirement for a community to have a drop box. So if you live in a township, for example, wherever you, you know, we have word listeners all over, find out if they have a drop box 'cause a lot of them are being pressured, especially outside Dane County, to not put a drop box in. There's disinformation that Dodge County Sheriff said, you know, email all the clerks. Don't use drop boxes. They're not secure. So I think that's the big takeaway is use them on that last weekend if you're, 'cause I'm concerned about the mail, but make sure there is one. - Yes. You know, your, your restlessness with the mail, when you, when you mention that side by side with the fact that our mail goes to Milwaukee, it's, it's, it's true. So the, you also talk about misinformation and we only have a couple of minutes left, but I do want to go there. The certain factors in the Republican party will, will and are car-veying people to doubt any people, not all, the process, the integrity of ballots being casted in Dane County and around Wisconsin, around the country. What are your fears about that kind of thing happening this time? - Yeah, I do worry about the misinformation. We've seen that be like a feature. It's, it's not a bug. It's now happening, you know, every cycle. It's not true. We really go out of our way here to be as transparent as humanly possible. So, you know, we test the equipment twice, you know, we test it and then the municipal clerks, when they receive the media and their ballots, test it again, then after the election, there are audits. In fact, there's one going on upstairs right now for the August election where they hand count, match it to the results. And then we put every ballot image on the web for every election and it's randomized. You can't tell who voted, which ballot, but you can go through them and count them yourself. In fact, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, that conservative group did that for 2020. They looked through all of our images and said, yeah, it matches up and we like that Dane County does that. So, but you know, the problem is people make money or they're able to convince themselves they didn't lose or whatever. And I'm just, it is frustrating that it seems to be something that might be with us for some time. - I'm one of those vote in person guys. And when I think about the issue that we're talking about, right the second, I think about when I enter my polling place, the people working are my neighbors. - Right. - And so it always kind of sticks in my crawl when people are casting down on my many retired, many of whom are retired, giving their time, ensuring that our votes will be cast and illegal in an efficient way. Scott McDonald, thank you for joining us on the Friday to clock buzz. And good luck to you and all of the volunteers and staff that will help us count the vote in November.