Student Voting Guide | Wisconsin
Registration
Wisconsin allows registration on Election Day.[1] You can also register by mail if your registration form is postmarked 20 days before the election.[2] Finally, you can register in person at the county clerk’s office until 5:00 p.m. on the day before the election.[3] You must live in Wisconsin for at least 10 days before you are allowed to register to vote.[4] You may register to vote if you will be 18 by the next general election.
Residency
At School. Wisconsin law clearly gives students the right to register and vote where they attend school.[5] Generally, your residence is where you currently live—your place of fixed habitation—“without any present intention to move.”[6] Elections officials are not allowed to consider student status when determining your eligibility to vote.[7]
At Home. Students who lived in Wisconsin before moving elsewhere to attend school, and who wish to establish or keep their Wisconsin voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ Wisconsin address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, Wisconsin allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the district to attend school, and the only way you will lose this residency is by establishing residency in a new state.[8] While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment of your Wisconsin residency, some judges or officials might view it as such.[9] Casting a ballot in another state will definitely be considered an abandonment of your Wisconsin residency,[10] and students who have voted in another state will have to re-establish residency in Wisconsin if they wish to vote there.
Challenges to Residency. Your registration can be challenged before the election by another registered voter or by elections officials.[11] You will receive notice of the challenge and can appear before elections officials to contest the challenge.[12] Your eligibility to vote can also be challenged at the polls by another voter or a poll worker.[13] In either type of challenge, you will be asked to take an oath and answer questions pertaining to your eligibility.[14]
If you take the oath and provide adequate answers to all the questions, you must be allowed to vote a challenged ballot.[15] When the votes are canvassed for your election jurisdiction, the canvassing authority will consider the challenge and make a determination.[16] You have the opportunity to appeal the determination.[17]
Identification
First-time voters must provide proof of residency when they register to vote.[18] If you do not have acceptable proof of residency at the time you seek to register in person, you will still be allowed to register if another voter, who is registered in your district and can show proof of residence, signs a statement confirming that you are, in fact, a resident.[19] If you register by mail, you will have to show similar proof either when you vote in person or by mail with your absentee ballot.[20] If you register to vote on Election Day, you will also have to show proof of residence or get another voter to vouch for you as described above.[21]
Your proof of residence can be a Wisconsin driver’s license, non-driver’s ID, or any other Wisconsin-issued ID card or license; an employee ID if it has a photo on it; a property tax bill; a residential lease (unless you’re registering by mail); a student ID if it contains both your photo and address, or if or your school provided the clerk with a list of students who live in school housing; a utility bill dated within 90 days; a bank statement; a paycheck; or a government check or other document.[22] Online printouts are not acceptable, but student housing bills or cellular telephone bills you receive in the mail should be accepted.[23] Any document you show must have your current name and address.[24]
Absentee Voting
http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=13378&locid=47
Any registered Wisconsin voter may vote absentee.[25] The mail-in absentee application is available on the web site of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board at the above link.[26] Your county clerk must receive your mail application by 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday before Election Day.[27] Note that your absentee ballot must be witnessed by an adult U.S. citizen.[28] If you are a first-time voter who registered to vote by mail, you must include a copy of your proof of residence with your ballot. Your absentee ballot is due by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.[29]
Currently, Wisconsin allows in-person absentee voting at the county clerk’s office for the 30 days prior to the election, ending at 5:00 p.m. the day before the election.[30] The Government Accountability Board recommended that the state adopt an early voting system, allowing voters to vote at an early polling site from 20 days before the election through 5:00 pm on the Friday prior to the election.[31] The recommendation included a pilot program for the 2010 elections and full implementation in 2011.
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, Wisconsin has early voting which begins as soon as ballots are ready and ends the day before Election Day.[1] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent.
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.55 (West 2009).
[2] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.28(1).
[3] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.29.
[4] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.02(2).
[5] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.10(4).
[6] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.10(1).
[7] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.10(12).
[8] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.10(5).
[9] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.10(10).
[10] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.10(10).
[11] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.48(1)(a).
[12] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.48(1)(b).
[13] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.925.
[14] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6. (inspector making challenge); § 6.925 (elector making challenge).
[15] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.94.
[16] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.95 (appeals taken pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 9.01).
[17] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.95.
[18] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.34.
[19] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.29(2)(a).
[20] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.29(2)(a).
[21] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.55(2)(b).
[22] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.34.
[23] Interview with Steve Pickett, Elections Specialist, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (July 9, 2008).
[24] Id.
[25] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.20.
[26] http://elections.state.wi.us/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=1636&locid=47.
[27] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.86(1)(a)(6).
[28] See Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.87(2).
[29] Wis. Stat. Ann. § 6.87(6).
[30] State of Wisconsin General Accountability Board, “An Examination of Early Voting in Wisconsin,” (January 2010), available at http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=18844&locid=47.
[31] Id.
[32] Wisconsin Secretary of State, Frequently Asked Questions available at http://elections.state.wi.us/faq_detail.asp?faqid=120&fid=27&locid=47
