Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
SUBSTITUTE - Recognizing and commending the City Clerks’ office, City Staff, volunteers, and organizations for their commitment to ensure that the City of Madison preserved the voting process.
Body
WHEREAS, over 60 city staff from Building Inspection, Planning, Weights & Measures, the City Assessor, the Mayor's Office, the Council Office, and stagehands to the #TeamCity agencies, Dane County mail room, Dane County print shop, and County Clerk's Office, Traffic Engineering, Parks, Fire department, Finance, IT, City Attorney’s office, the Emergency Operations Center, Engineering-Sustainability, Monona Terrace, and the libraries, Parking Utility cashiers assisted the clerks’ office diligently to ensure the election of April 7, 2020 was safe for the residents and the poll workers, and,
WHEREAS, Parking Utility cashiers who helped count absentees at the 9-1/2 hour Board of Canvassers meeting, the numerous facilities that agreed to serve as polling locations in the midst of the pandemic, Badger Cab drivers for served as absentee couriers on Election Day, and Union Cab for provided voters with free rides to the polls on Election Day; and,
WHEREAS, the city staff came from various department along with volunteers to the aid of the Clerk’s Office to help with labeling, stuffing envelopes, pulling ballots, and stuffing ballots, and assisting with early absentee and curbside voting during the days and hours up to the election, and,
WHEREAS, the Clerk’s Office was running close to empty on envelopes, and American Family stepped up to print 25,000 envelopes to keep the process going forward, and,
WHEREAS, while processing voter registrations and absentee ballot requests, the Clerk’s Office also assisted hundreds of residents per day who were struggling to navigate the online systems for uploading a voter ID and requesting an absentee ballot, and,
WHEREAS, 4,828 individuals used curbside and in-office early in-person absentee voting with and extended hours to adjust for the demand, and,
WHEREAS, the clerk’s office issued 87,890 absentee ballots, 69,437, were returned, and,
WHEREAS, NewBridge, The Dane County Voter ID Coalition, and the League of Women Voters of Dane County assisted individuals who needed witness signatures on their absentee ballots, and,
WHEREAS, Engineering worked to ensure the safety of the poll workers during the election by building screens to protect them during the election, and,
WHEREAS, the 1,400 poll workers who made the tough decision to volunteer dedicate their time so our residents could vote, and 1,761 poll workers who understandably made the heart wrenching decision that they could not work at the polls, and together they all are our heroes today, and,
WHEREAS, the National Guard came to join the effort so that the election would go on until the last person cast their vote, and,
WHEREAS, despite efforts by the state legislators not acknowledging that the pandemic has created challenges to voting, residents of all ages, ethnicities, and genders came to the polls to exercise their right to vote, and,
WHEREAS, today April 21, 2020 we honor the Clerk’s Office, City Staff, City Agencies, Engineering, Poll Workers, and all the volunteers,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that City of Madison, the Mayor and the Madison Common Council do hereby recognize and commend the City Clerk’s Office, City Staff, volunteers, and organizations for their commitment to ensure that the City of Madison preserved the voting process by having 66 of the 92 polling locations open.