Clark County CNRED Agent Provides Some Final Information on Voting Before Next Tuesday's Election
Tuesday, October 27th, 2020 -- 12:36 PM
-Election Day is one week away.I spoke with Melissa Kono, the CNRED Agent for Clark County, and she discussed some last minute items people should know before election day.
Question: “On October 20th, we hit an important milestone in regards to the election. People can now do in-person absentee voting. Can you talk a little bit about that?”
Melissa: “In Wisconsin, a lot of people will call it early voting, but it is in-person absentee voting. It starts two week prior to the election date. That’s actually a change. It used to be able to start a lot earlier than that. But now a court decision in July has limited it to the two weeks prior to the election. So, people have the opportunity to either go to an in-person absentee voting office hour time that their clerk is having. There’s some larger municipalities that will do a drive-thru type voting or people can go to their clerk’s office or another location and cast their ballot. It’s still via absentee, so they’ll mark their ballot and put it in an envelope that will then be counted on Election Day. Or if they can’t make one of those scheduled times, their clerk may offer a “by appointment” absentee voting. And to check those hours, they would have to contact their municipal clerk, but if they go to the myvote.wi.gov site, their clerk’s contact information is available there and they can ask their clerk when they’ll be holding in-person absentee and, also, those times have been published in local newspapers too.”
Question: “We’re down to the wire now, but can people still do the absentee voting by mail?”
Melissa: “Absolutely. They have up until the Thursday prior to the election (which is this Thursday, October 29th), to request an absentee ballot being mailed to them. But, just keep in mind, there’s some mailing times in there for the ballot to get to them, the voter to vote and then return it. And if they would like to do that, they can go to the myvote.wi.gov site and they can request an absentee ballot there. And if they’re not registered to vote, they do now have to do in-person voter registration with their municipal clerk. The online voter registration has ended, but people can still request an absentee ballot on the my vote site if they’re registered to vote.”
Question: “We’ve talked about this before, but we should stress that when it comes to voter information, voter registration, etc., they should really stick with the myvote site as third parties are sending out information that’s not always true.”
Melissa: “Yes, as a municipal clerk, I’m getting a lot of third party requests in and, unfortunately, most of the time, they’re missing information that’s necessary for me to actually register a voter or send that voter an absentee ballot. And if you do a Google search, the myvote site does come up, but sometimes I’ve noticed other sites, because they’re doing an advertisement, will sometimes be above that in the search results. So, just be sure that you’re using the myvote.wi.gov site because if you are requesting an absentee ballot on that site, you’ll have to show a photo ID and it’s very safe to do that through the official site, but I wouldn’t give that information to a third party.”
Question: “Is there anything else you’d like people to know about in regards to absentee voting?”
Melissa: “Yes, a couple things important for absentee voting, is that you still need to show a photo ID. So, if you’re going to one of those in-person events or meet up with your clerk, just make sure you bring an acceptable form of photo ID. Your photo ID does not have to have your current address on it. Some people are confused by that. If people need to register and then vote absentee, they will have to have something with their current address on it that’s an acceptable proof of residence document. But photo ID is still needed whether you’re requesting it online or going to vote in person with the clerk.”
“One thing I’m seeing a lot is people getting an absentee ballot and forgetting to sign it as the voter or have their witness sign and include the witness address. The print on those ballots is kind of squished together and it’s hard to read and it’s kind of a confusing process, so just make sure all of those items are completed. And also one thing that I always tell voters is that you don’t have to fill out and vote for every office on the ballot. Your ballot still counts if you vote for all of the offices or none of them if you really wanted too. And if people are looking for more information on ballot candidates, because, sometimes, down the ballot, people may not know as much about those candidates, vote411.org is a nonpartisan site that provides information on ballot candidates. So, if you want to make an informed decision you can go there or if you are undecided, you can just leave that blank.”
Question: “When people go to the polls this year, what can they expect?”
Melissa: “Well, I think that they should prepare. There might be more people there than usual, both in terms of people who are working and other voters. So, make a plan because it might take a little more time than it usually does. If people are registered to vote at their municipality, they still need to bring a photo ID with them to the polls. If people are not registered to vote, they can vote on Election Day here in Wisconsin. And if their driver’s license from Wisconsin has their current address on it, they’re good to go, they can use that. But if they don’t have a driver’s license with their current address, they can also bring something else to register to vote if they’re not already registered. So, a utility bill or even a hunter’s or fishing license works. A vehicle registration document works too. So, there’s lots of options if people need to register, but everybody needs to bring a voter ID in order to get a ballot.”
Question: “Depending on where they’re voting, people may have to wait a little bit longer as, once again, we’re going to be voting during a pandemic, so that may close things down a bit, correct?”
Melissa: “Correct. Polls open at 7am and they close at 8pm. As long as you’re standing in line at 8pm, you’re still allowed to vote even if the line is long and it takes a little bit longer. And I’m guessing too that there will be some social distancing measures in place, so you’ll have to stay six feet apart. One thing that will really help is if people come to the polls prepared with their photo ID or with other documents they may need to register to vote. Also, make sure you’re at the correct place. If you go on the myvote.wi.gov site and enter your address, it will tell you where to go to vote and that way you can make sure you’re in the right place. And if you’re unsure, make sure you ask one of the workers when you get there too because you don’t want to stand in line if you’re not in the right spot.”
Question: “We should probably reiterate that people don’t have to fill out the entire ballot when they vote, correct? Their ballot will still be counted, correct?”
Melissa: “Yep, we’re so ingrained from school that if you take a test, make sure you fill out every answer because if you guess, you might get it right. That is not at all how voting works nor how it should work. So, the main thing is that you cannot vote, usually, for multiple candidates. And you’d think that would be obvious, but I’ll tell you that at least once in every election, I’ll see somebody whose voted, for example, if there’s five candidates and they can only vote for one, they vote for multiple candidates. That’s not going to count. And it’s really hard to determine voter intent sometimes when that happens. So, make sure you’re following the instructions. If you have any questions, ask the election workers. They can assist voters. If you have any questions about how to properly fill out the ballot or what does this mean or how many people can I vote for? Just ask. You can also bring someone with you into the voting booth to help. For some people it may be hard to read or to see the print on the ballot or maybe first time voters are hesitant. They do not have to mark every office on the ballot. If they only want to vote for one office, they can do that and it still counts. And again, if people want more information on ballot candidates, they can go to that non-partisan website, 411.org, that provides information on ballot candidates.”
Question: “Another thing we should touch on too is the results. Due to voting in the pandemic and the number of absentee ballots, we may not know the results on election night here in the state.”
Melissa: “Yes, it’s hard to say. Right now all absentee ballots are due to the polling place by 8pm on Election Day. So, when the polls close, all those absentee ballots need to be in. So, I think that most municipalities have really beefed up how they’re processing absentee ballots. We can’t take them out of the envelope until the polls open on Election Day, but I think there’s been some organization surrounding that, so once the polls open, there’s extra workers where there needs to be extra workers to help process those absentee ballots and, also, I know that, at the end of the night, most municipalities, including mine, have extra tabulators on hand, so people to help with counting. And I think that will really help. We’ve had time to repair, we’ve known that this is going to be a big election and now, for months, we’ve known there’s going to be an increase in absentee ballots. And even though they do take more work, we’ve prepared for that to the best of our ability.”
“Provisional ballots are issued when somebody is registered to vote, but they forgot their ID. And that voter has until the Friday after the election to bring a photo ID to their clerk. I’m not sure there will be enough provisional ballots for that to be a tipping point in this election. Although, these days it’s hard to say with anything. But usually during an election, I’ve only had provisional ballots a few times ever, so I don’t think that the outcome of the election will hinge on that. But, again, it’s hard to say. I wouldn’t expect results by 9pm on Election Night, but I would hope within the next day safely. But I guess I’m assuming. I don’t really know.”
Question: “Is there anything else you feel voters should know before they head to the polls on November 3rd?”
Melissa: “Make sure you’re going to the right place and, also, make sure you have the proper photo ID. The list of photo ID’s is pretty limited, so either a Wisconsin Driver’s license or the Photo ID Card issued by the Department of Transportation. A passport works as does a student ID card also, a tribal ID card or a uniform service or veteran’s ID card, those are all the things that work for photo ID purposes. So, those are all the things that work for photo ID purposes. So, make sure you have that. For photo ID purposes, it doesn’t have to have a current address on it. But to register, you’ll need something that has your current address on it, but for photo ID it doesn’t need to have your current address on it.”
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.