Common Council

National Voter Registration Day Celebration

Today, Tuesday, Sep. 20, the City of Madison will join hundreds of communities nationwide in celebrating National Voter Registration Day.  Founded in 2012, National Voter Registration Day is a non-partisan celebration of democracy focused on facilitating the right to vote.

The City Clerk's Office will conduct voter outreach and host voter registration drives throughout the City for several weeks. See dates and locations near you - here.

National Voter Registration DayGeneral Election Sample Ballots Available - In addition, a list of several offices that are up for election on November 8th.

Voters can view a sample ballot for their address on the MyVote Wisconsin website.

Voter registration before the November 8 General Election remains open by mail and online through Wednesday, October 19.

Please note: Between Thursday, October 20 and Friday, November 4, voters who need to register need to do so in person.

They can do so at the Clerk's Office on weekdays, Thursday, October 20 through Monday, October 24, 8:00am – 4:30pm. When in-person absentee voting sites open on Tuesday, October 25, voters will need to register at any one of those sites during the site's open hours. Voter registration will be available at in-person absentee voting sites during their open hours through Friday, November 4.

Voter registration is unavailable November 5 through November 7. If voters need to register on Election Day, November 8th, they can do so at their polling place.

Voting Absentee by Mail

When voting absentee by mail, please make sure to read all of the instructions. This helps you make sure you are completing all steps necessary to have your ballot counted on Election Day.

What are the things we see most often that require us to follow up with the voter or reject the ballot at the polling place on Election Day?

• Missing voter signature – If the voter needs an assistant to sign their name on the certificate envelope, the assistant should sign the voter's name on the voter signature line and sign their own name on the assistant signature line near the bottom of the envelope.
• Missing witness signature
• Missing witness address – We encourage voters to have their witness write out their complete residence address: street number, street name, municipality (city, town or village name), state, and zip code. Reminder that PO boxes are not acceptable as a witness address on an absentee certificate.

The definition of a complete address for an absentee ballot certificate is a bit up in the air at the moment. We are encouraging folks to include the state and zip code when they write in their address as witness. If you are scheduled to work on November 8, it will be incredibly important for you to pay attention to communications received from our office and to training so you know what needs to be looked for when processing absentee ballots on Election Day.