If you’re anything like me, and the thousands of other students here, you’ve moved since the last time you voted. It’s no big deal, and despite what you might think, it’s remarkably easy to register to vote, even in some of the most difficult situations. Please note that if you haven’t moved or changed your legal name since the last time you’ve voted, you will not need to re-register (yay)!
The only thing you need to do is research a little. Every state has different voter-registration laws. A great website to check out is this one. It has an easy map where you can highlight and click on your state and a drop-down list of laws and regulations are displayed. The most important step here is to find out when your registration deadline is, because so many states have different times, and we really don’t want you to miss it. Nicely, there are fifteen states that allow same-day registration, and one of them is our great state of Wisconsin!
Once you’ve figured out when you need to be registered by, the next step is to research registering on campus. This gets tricky when you’re an out-of-state student or only have a campus ID as your source of identification. Every campus has solutions to these extremely common problems through one of their student services. If doing research online for UW-Madison for instance, going to Associated Students of Madison on our school’s web page is your hub for the answers.
In Wisconsin you can register as a state-voter, even if you are not a permanent resident. The first step is to provide proof of your current (yet maybe temporary) Wisconsin address. You then need to get a Voter-Compliant ID, since you won’t have a valid Wisconsin ID. These are super easy to obtain at UW-Madison, and you only need to bring your student ID to the Wiscard office at Union South. They will get it all worked out there. Provide both of these things and you can officially register!Another option for out-of-state students that would prefer to vote as a resident of their home turf is to vote on an absentee ballot. Wisconsin allows any voter to vote this way by fax, email, or snail-mail. See the Brennan Center website referred to earlier in the article to view Wisconsin absentee ballot deadlines as well as check to see if your state allows them!
The most important thing to take away from this is that growing up is scary. You have to start doing so many new things on your own without any guidance, and sometimes it all seems a little too real to complete. One of those things is most definitely voting. It’s a huge responsibility, but a really important one. It’s the pillar of this country’s democracy, and it’s not as hard as any of your doubts have made you think it is. It’s time to take control of this new life of adulthood and really own it. So this November make sure you are registered, educated, and ready to vote.