Fiscal Note
The cost of hiring one Chief Inspector to administer absentee voting at each site outside of the City Clerk's Office will be up to $26,000. This expenditure will reduce overtime costs in the City Clerk's Office. Data from the November 2016 election indicates that establishing absentee voting locations throughout the City of Madison also reduces the costs associated with mailing absentee ballots. No additional appropriation required.
Title
Establishing absentee voting locations for the February 2017 Spring Primary.
Body
WHEREAS, voting is both a right and the vital core of a healthy democracy; and
WHEREAS, the goal of the Madison City Clerk's Office is that each eligible voter will be able to cast a ballot and have that ballot counted; and
WHEREAS, City of Madison residents welcomed the opportunity to vote absentee at accessible locations in the fall of 2016, tripling the city's previous record for the number of absentee votes cast in-person; and
WHEREAS, absentee ballots cast in-person are less likely that ballots sent through the mail to be rejected at the polls due to missing signatures or witness addresses; and
WHEREAS, it is inequitable to limit in-person absentee voting to Madison residents who are able to obtain transportation downtown; and
WHEREAS, offering extended in-person absentee voting hours at multiple sites throughout the City may further racial equity for residents who have not historically been involved in the voting process;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Madison chooses to make in-person absentee voting more accessible and equitable by establishing the following in-person absentee voting locations for the February 2017 Spring Primary:
City Clerk's Office
210 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd. #103
8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, February 1-17
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, February 18
1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, February 19
Streets East
4602 Sycamore Avenue
7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, February 1-17...
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