Public reminded of voting, registration p

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With the presidential elections on the horizon, it’s important to stay on top of voter registration and voting methods.

You can register online at myvote.wi.gov/en-us/RegisterToVote, at your municipal clerk’s office, or at the polling place on election day. A photo ID is required, but Medford city clerk Ginny Brost said that in order to register, you do not need to have an up to date address on your driver’s license, but you do have to bring some other type of document with your address printed on it dated from the past 90 days with the address on it, such as a lease, utility bill, payroll stub or bank statement.

Many officials, including Gov. Evers, have been urging people to vote by absentee and mail-in ballots, hoping to avoid COVID-19 breakouts stemming from in-person voting. There is no clear consensus as to whether Wisconsin’s Special Election in-person voting led to a spike back in April, with studies being released supporting both sides of the argument.

The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail is Oct. 29 by 5 p.m. for a regular voter, and they will begin to be sent out around the third week of September. After filling out your ballot and providing a copy of your ID, a witness of legal voting age has to sign the ballot as well, including their name and address. Brost recommends writing both party’s phone numbers on the ballots too.

“That way, if there’s any issue, we can contact both people and get everything settled,” she explained.

The ballot can then be put in the mail or dropped off at city hall. Once it comes to the clerk’s office, the ballots are kept sealed until election day. That morning the ballots are brought to a polling place, where they’re opened up and put into the machine, casting a vote for your preferred presidential candidate.