Vote early, vote ... well, vote early
According to research done by The New York Times, Wisconsin is one of sixteen states in the nation that 'do not allow enough time for last-minute voting by mail'. The reason is that Wisconsin allows 'voters to apply for mail ballots so close to election day that their votes could be at risk of being too late if they are sent and returned through the Postal Service'.
The deadline for applying for absentee ballots through the mail is the last Thursday before the election. This year that day is Thursday, October 29, which makes for a very tight turn-around, since the ballots have to be postmarked by election day - Tuesday, November 3. Therefore people are urged to apply for ballots early and return them early, or, if they insist on procrastinating, drop them off at local election offices or secure drop-boxes (pictured above at the Middleton Public Library). Of course, it is also always possible to vote in person on November 3.
So-called in-person absentee voting (election officials don't seem to catch the irony in that expression) is possible until the Friday before the election (October 30) at City Hall.
While there is a last date for requesting an absentee ballot, there is no earliest date for doing so. Municipal clerks keep track of the requests, and will start sending out absentee ballots as soon as they have been received from the county administration, which, as City Clerk Lorie Burns explained at the September 1 Finance Committee meeting, should be around September 15 for Middleton (Dane County is in charge of creating all election ballots and mailing them out to the cities, towns and villages within its jurisdiction).
Besides the uncertainties introduced into the Postal Service's operations as the result of yet another incompetent Donald Trump crony buying his way into high office, some of the problems resulting from absentee-voting are caused by the voters themselves. Apart from waiting too long before requesting and returning their absentee-ballots, wrongly filled out documents are also common causes of delays and invalid ballots (both voter and witness also have to sign the return-envelope, for instance).
According to Lorie Burns, Middleton is so far quite well prepared for the November 3 election. An appeal by the City for volunteer poll workers and other election officials resulted in more than 100 responses, to which can be added about the same number of potential volunteers who have helped out in the past.
As of August 26, the City Clerk's Office had 6,500 requests for absentee ballots on file. Based on previous elections, Lorie Burns estimates that more than 11,000 people might vote absentee for the presidential election, out of an estimated total 13,000 residents who are expected to vote (almost 14,600 people are registered to vote this November). In the 2016 November election, the city of Middleton saw a voter turnout of 84%. While the turnout in this year's spring election was unsuprisingly lower at 62%, the number of people who voted absentee in April 2020 was high at 85%.
Absentee voting after September 15
The city's election workers start work around September 15 when 30 of them mail out the first absentee ballots. Between September 28 and November 2, three workers will enter returned ballots, mail back incomplete certification envelopes, enter voter registrations and more absentee-ballot requests, file returned ballots that have been entered into the system, prepare and send out absentee-ballots, and mail letters with incomplete applications on file.
Early voting between October 19 and 30
Between October 19 and October 30, two workers will help with early voting in the Clerk's Office at City Hall. On October 31 and November 1, 15 workers will be busy full-time reconciling and issuing voter numbers for all ballots that were returned as of October 30.
Election day voting on November 3
On election day itself, 13 workers and eight supervisors or their alternates will be at each of the city's polling places: St. Luke's Church on Hubbard Avenue, St. Bernard's Parish Center on University Avenue, the Municipal Court on Donna Drive, and the School District's Service Center on South Avenue (for November 3 in-person voting, the city is reactivating its old four polling places; there will be no voting at Kromrey Middle School).
Total cost to the City for election workers' compensation, supplies and mailing expenses is estimated to be about $52,000.
More detailed information about voting, including who votes where, is available at the City of Middleton's website (https://cityofmiddleton.us/159/Elections) and at the Wisconsin Elections Commission's website (https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/). The MyVote website also allows voters to track their absentee ballot online.
Gurdip Brar's Empty Chair Policy
A seat on the City's Airport Commission has now been vacant for 100 days since the Common Council rejected the reappointment of town of Middleton chairwoman Cynthia Richson in May. Several qualified candidates had applied for the position well before the April 27 deadline, but they have the misfortune of living in the city of Middleton, and even though the airport is owned by the City, mayor Gurdip Brar refuses to appoint a resident of the city of Middleton.
Instead, he wants to appoint an airport opponent from the town of Middleton or town of Springfield (the principle of which the Council rejected in a separate vote in June), and would rather ignore the law than not get his wish: City ordinances stipulate how many people serve on the Airport (or any other) Commission, and by purposefully leaving a seat open out of personal spite he is violating both the letter and the spirit of the ordinance.
One consistent behavioral trait in a political career otherwise marked by erratic decision-making, self-interested populism, and a deep ignorance of municipal governance and finance (besides sucking up to voters by making promises that other people have to keep, and then blaming these other people if they couldn't keep his promises, or taking the credit himself if they could), has been his (unstated) policy of appointing political loyalists to advisory committees and commissions in order for them to help him further his personal/political agenda. This, fortunately, does not usually work out the way he expects, largely because most of his appointees have more integrity than he gives them credit for, and they serve the city admirably.
Maybe that is why he has been trying to infiltrate commissions and committees with outside residents who do not have the city's best interests at heart: He might have run out of political loyalists in the city, and if his own personal/political interests are best served by people from outside the city, then he will gladly enlist them as mercenaries. That is unlikely, however. Less than five months ago, Gurdip Brar was reelected mayor with an increased majority, so his base seems to have grown (although he was also helped by his opponents' stunningly inept election campaigns).
As our national politics show, there is no shortage of people ready to support a whiny populist liar who doesn't give a rat's ass about the country and is only in it for himself. (A disclaimer: I am not saying, or even implying, that Gurdip Brar is 'a whiny populist liar who ...', but I am saying that if some people are ready to believe and vote for an extreme whiny populist liar like the weak, sniveling, tantrum-throwing caricature of a president that currently squats in the White House, then it is not surprising that other people would believe and vote for a moderate populist who comes across as decent, hard-working and genuinely concerned about his community.)
On the other hand, maybe his Airport Commission Empty Chair Policy means that Gurdip Brar is working on a change from city politics, and preparing his next personal/political move as a town or county politician by sucking up to new potential voters in advance. Which would mean that he really has the city of Middleton’s best interests at heart, and we should wish him well in such an endeavor.