As I faced an unpredictable adversity in my ability to cast my vote close to Election Day, Wisconsin’s same-day voter registration policy helped me be able to still have my voice heard.
I was excited counting down the days until the 2024 General Election. In fact, I have been doing so since Election Day 2020. This election would be my first time voting and I made sure that everything was going to go smoothly on Election Day. The day I got my driver’s license a year and a half ago, I registered to vote in the state of Illinois. I was ecstatic to be able to finally participate in an election just like the ones I spent years watching on TV.
When I finally arrived at UW-Madison this August, I ordered my absentee ballot from Illinois within the first couple of weeks that I was here. I rationalized this decision to vote in Illinois rather than Wisconsin based on the idea that I wanted to voice my support towards my local Congresswoman in her race as well as the local provisions that were on my ballot.
Flash forward to October and I received an email from the Office of the Cook County Clerk saying that my ballot had been sent to me. I was so excited to hear this news. I would finally be able to fill in all the bubbles and let my voice be heard by the electoral system for the first time. All I had to do now was wait. And I did wait. I waited and waited, turning checking my little mailbox into a daily activity. I told all of my friends almost daily that I was waiting for my ballot and that it was on its way.
But, as each day passed and Election Day got closer and closer, I kept checking my mailbox and kept finding it empty. I began to worry. With every day that passed, I was worried that the ballot was going to come too late and I would not be able to let my voice be heard in the General Election like I had planned.
When the election was a week away, I still hadn’t received my ballot in the mail and I felt crazy. Because I was a first-time voter in this election, I had no gauge on how long an absentee ballot should take to arrive in the mail. Thankfully instead of sitting and waiting for the ballot to arrive, as I suspected something was awry, I called the Office of the Cook County Clerk. When I talked to the woman on the other end of the phone, I explained my situation to her, and she nicely explained to me that waiting weeks for a mail-in ballot was not actually normal and my ballot had probably been lost in the mail. When I heard her say this, panic started to set in. I became worried that I wouldn’t be able to vote at all in this election, something that I had been dreaming about for years.
Once the panic began to subsidize and my mind stopped racing, I asked her if I could still vote in Wisconsin.
In response, she told me: “You can still vote in Wisconsin if they still have their registration open.”
When I heard her say that, excitement began flowing through me again.
“Wisconsin has same-day registration!” I exclaimed over the phone. I then thanked her for her time, told her to have a great day and hung up the phone.
I immediately then made use of all of the information available to me and made a plan to vote in Wisconsin. A couple of days later, I was able to register to vote and vote early on the same day within an hour. I was able to make my voice heard during this election. I was almost jumping with joy when I left Memorial Union.
Without Wisconsin’s same-day voter registration policy, there was a chance that I would not have been able to vote at all in the election. I would not have been able to have my voice heard at all. Even if the candidate I had wanted to win Wisconsin ultimately did not win the state, I am still glad for the ability to contribute to making it a closer race. If I were in another state, where same-day registration were not allowed, I would have had to travel back home, abandoning all of my classes and schoolwork, to go and vote in my hometown.
While I recognize my gratitude for Wisconsin’s registration policy, I also understand that a lot of college students are attending universities away from home in states that don’t allow for late registration. So when hiccups in absentee voting happen similar to mine, it is harder for these students to participate in the democratic process that is central to the foundation of our country. This can cause these students to feel overwhelmed, ostracized and like their voices don’t matter. Same-day registration policies help to alleviate challenges that out-of-state college students face when exercising their right to vote.