Robust Turnout On UW-Madison Campus

By Baylor Spears, Wisconsin Examiner

November 8, 2022

At around 4:03 p.m., Mike Verveer, the chief inspector at the UW-Madison Gordon Dining and Event Center polling site, called to report recent voting numbers and retrieve additional registration forms — they had less than 100 left.

“It’s chaos here, but it’s wonderful chaos,” Verveer said over the phone before delivering the most recent voting numbers. At the beginning of the hour, just over 900 students had cast their ballots. By the end of the hour, the number was over 1,000. Verveer, who has worked as a poll worker for more than 20 years, described it as a robust turnout at the campus.

With over 100 students voting in a one-hour span, lines were long at this location that mostly serves UW-Madison students, who are first-time voters and may not have previously registered to vote.

Verveer shepherded students in and out as quickly as possible, a process that started by ensuring students were at the correct polling location.

“Do all of you live at Lucky, Sellery or Witte? Lucky, Sellery or Witte?” Verveer would ask groups of students before a pause. Only people who lived in those campus dorms were allowed to vote at the site.

If a student needed to go somewhere else, Verveer would search their address, tell them the correct location and emphasize they had until 8 p.m. to vote there.

“Have any of you pre-registered in advance, using your dormitory address?” Verveer’s questioning continued. As students answered, he pointed them to the correct line, often the voter registration line, which at times stretched out to over 20 students.

Voter ID requirements also caused slight confusion for some out-of-state students, who would enter to vote before being told they needed to get in a different line for ID printing. This line at times wound down a set of stairs.

“They’re from Illinois, Minnesota, and you know all 50 states, and they need to do the separate process of getting a physical voter ID issued to them by the university identification office,” Verveer said. (Wisconsin law does not allow the use of regular student IDs for voting.)

Polling locations on campus employed people to sit outside voting rooms with a printer to quickly print ID’s for students who were eligible. Voter ID laws tightened during former Gov. Scott Walker’s administration, and out-of-state students without a Wisconsin driver’s license or other acceptable form of ID must get a specific school-issued ID in order to vote.

Verveer said since he works at on-campus locations with the printing accommodation, he hasn’t had anyone get discouraged enough not to vote. However, he said he does worry for out-of-state students who vote at off-campus locations without the printing accommodation.

“You think of the thousands of students that vote off-campus, that live and vote off campus,” Verveer said. “They don’t have the benefit of the student ID cards at their polling place.”
Those students must make an extra stop at an on-campus polling place to get an ID, before going to a second polling place where they are allowed to vote.

UW-Madison students excited by Gov. Evers sighting

At around noon, UW-Madison students greeted Gov. Tony Evers excitedly, waving hello and requesting photos, as he walked down State Street.

“We were talking about voting and then I just go ‘yeah there’s our governor,” said Kaylee Stevenson, a junior from Minnesota.

“Just walking down the street!’” a friend added.

Stevenson along with three friends excitedly ran down the road to grab a photo with Evers. She said she was excited to see him because he is fighting for women’s rights, bodily autonomy and for climate justice.

Stevenson said she voted in Wisconsin because of how much is at stake here.

“I want everyone here to have the same rights, abortion rights, as Minnesota does,” Stevenson said. “So I think my vote matters more here.”

Abortion in Wisconsin is currently restricted due to a 1849 law that bans the procedure with no no exceptions for rape or incest. In contrast, abortion is protected in Minnesota under the state constitution.

Volunteers with the UW-Madison College Democrats, who were stationed outside a busy Colectivo Coffee shop asking passerbyers about their voting plans, also spoke with Evers.

Abby Maechling, a student volunteer, said she was not expecting to see Evers, but it was “super cool” to see him on Election Day. During the brief conversation, she said she wished the incumbent good luck and that he thanked her and other volunteers for their work.

Maechling said she got involved with volunteer efforts this year because she knows people don’t always pay as much attention to midterm elections as they do to presidential elections. She said issues like economic recovery after COVID-19, abortion, LGBTQ issues and public education funding make this year’s midterms just as important.

“Because we go to a public university, the state controls the budget for this school and the amazing professors that we have and the incredible research that we’re able to do and get involved in,” Maechling said. “Whoever ends up in office following this election will dictate the funding that goes into our education.”

She said she was outside working for a few hours before Evers walked by, and that the quick conversation served as a reminder of why she is doing what she’s doing.

“It’s just a reminder that politicians and the values that we’re voting on in this critical election are real people, and they are out here trying to campaign and fight for people on this campus and in the state of Wisconsin,” Maechling said.

Observers look on as UW-Madison students rush to the polls

UW-Madison students rushing between morning classes stopped by the campus Hillel Center to cast their votes in this year’s midterm elections. Colleen McCarty, a UW-Madison junior, worked as a poll worker Tuesday morning answering student voters’ logistical questions, including how they could update their current address and ensuring they had the right type of identification to vote.

“I just thought it was important. Wisconsin is a swing state and I just wanted to make sure that people had access,” she said. This is her first time working at polls and she thought it would be a “super cool” experience to see how it all worked, she added.

Ellie Asher, a 20-year-old from Washington, D.C., voted for all Democrats including Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes who is challenging Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.

Asher said she decided to cast her vote in Wisconsin months ago because D.C. doesn’t have statehood and at the urging of her mother to “put your vote in a one of the swing states.” She said a passion for protecting abortion rights and legalizing marijuana brought her attention to the elections early. She said a couple of her family members have run into legal trouble due to marijuana use and that she believes marijuana should be regulated like alcohol.

Karen Bruce, 70, sat in the corner of UW-Madison’s Hillel voting center eating a muffin while observing poll workers. She said she arrived on campus with her husband at around 7:00 a.m. for her shift that was scheduled into the afternoon. Bruce said she responded to a radio ad asking people to help with poll observing and decided to help because she felt like “maybe, things haven’t been as secure as they should be.”

Specifically, Bruce said she didn’t like that there were absentee ballot drop boxes in Madison and Milwaukee because they did not seem secure to her.

Bruce said she also didn’t trust the votes that were reported following the closing of polling locations during the 2020 elections, “where all of a sudden after the polls are closed and everybody’s left, ‘Oh we have this extra bag of votes.’ These extra votes that suddenly came in,” Bruce said.

During the 2020 presidential election, the vote total from Milwaukee increased dramatically late in the day due to a late tally of absentee ballots, which aren’t allowed to be counted in Wisconsin until Election Day.

Bruce said from what she saw at Hillel this morning, poll workers were being diligent — checking voter addresses and “lists” to ensure people hadn’t lost the right to vote. However, while she said nothing seemed egregiously wrong at the UW-Madison polling location, she is still not confident in the widespread security of Wisconsin’s elections due to “reports of military ballots.”

Last week, a Milwaukee elections official was charged with a felony for fraudulently requesting absentee ballots dedicated to military members and sending them to a state representative known for spreading election fraud.

“I think we have a long way to go,” Bruce said. “I think loopholes have been found that I hope will get addressed.” She said she plans to vote for Republicans Tim Michels and Sen. Ron Johnson after her shift as a poll watcher is over.

In Wisconsin’s great progressive tradition, we aim to hold the powerful accountable to the people, follow the money, and dig out the truth. Although we give you the inside scoop, we are not a publication for “insiders.” Instead, we cover the way politics and government affect citizens of the state.