Early voter turnout spots span all of Milwaukee

Voting is supposed to be an inherent action whereby the call for political change is enforced by people, usually beginning on the first Tuesday of November. However, for those who are eager to cast their ballot ahead of time, after political ads bid household media adieu but before election party officials load confetti, eight Milwaukee locations are hosting early absentee voting, now through Nov. 4.

On Monday, Oct. 22, at the Center Street Library, on W. Fond Du Lac Ave., Linda Hopson, alongside her husband, Archi Hopson, decided to show early – a tradition, for the Hopsons – because she wanted to guarantee her ballot casting.

“You can beat the rush,” Linda Hopson said. “Because, we know, on the sixth – that’s when everybody is going to try and go.”

Archi Hopson’s philosophy falls along the same lines, as he thinks that free time, in October, may not translate to free time on Election Day. His motivations for voting itself, though, are inspired by his ancestors, whom he says died for his right to vote.

“My forefathers died, so that we could vote – that means a lot to me,” said Archi Hopson, who wants to press how imperative voting is to future generations.

Earlier in the day, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was, like the Hopsons, stressing the importance of young people voting. Sanders spoke at a rally held in the Wisconsin Room at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and praised Democrat Tammy Baldwin and gubernatorial challenger Tony Evers in front of over 1,000 people.

In Milwaukee County alone, nearly 22,000 absentee ballots were returned as of Monday, which was roughly 15 percent of the total 141,257 returned statewide, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Comparatively, on Oct. 21, 2016, over 223,000 people returned absentee ballots – 31,655 of which came from Milwaukee County.

Though this year warrants a midterm election, Linda Hopson, 59, thinks the reason fewer Milwaukee County citizens voted for Hillary Clinton in the last Presidential election, as opposed to Barack Obama in 2012, may have had something to do with race, though she’s hoping the voting turnout amongst African-Americans remains steady. Regardless, she has been consistently voting in local, state and presidential elections.

“I do believe that we, as a people, will get it together and start voting every time,” said Linda Hopson, who added that her grandson, who thought his vote in 2016 didn’t count, will be at the epicenter, along with his generation, for elections to come.

Regina Sims, who became a first-time early-voter, was unsure of the route to her polling place in the North Division neighborhood come Election Day. She said her arthritis and worn cartilage in her knees made things uncertain.

“If I can’t (vote on Nov. 6), I might as well do it now,” said Sims, who expressed her staunch opposition to Republican Gov. Scott Walker, while not being impressed by any other candidates.

Sims, who thinks the neglect transmitted by politicians is enforced more in poorer neighborhoods, is a strong proponent of better education and infrastructure, especially in northern Milwaukee.

“It’s worse in the inner city,” said Sims, who said that the roadwork is so bad in the county that a person could blow out two tires, given the tantivy of the concrete. “We pay more taxes than anybody, and our gas bills are twice as high as other county.”

People like Walker and Tony Evers are rarely present in Milwaukee, a city with a multitude of problems, said Sims, who yearns to, one day, get out of Wisconsin proper.

Sanders is just one in a slew of pop political figures who has made their way to the state recently. President Donald Trump rallied on behalf of Gov. Scott Walker in Mosinee, while former President Barack Obama spoke in Milwaukee. One day before the Nov. 6 election, more than 540,000 have voted early, of which more than 91,000 were from Milwaukee County.

Of the 13 counties that leaned left in 2016’s presidential election, Milwaukee County, along with Dane County, pulled, as they historically have, much of the weight of the Democratic Party in the state. The remaining 60 counties voted Republican.

Along with the senatorial race, among the most anticipated contest is the gubernatorial, in which Scott Walker and Tony Evers are squaring off. Citizens, on a county-wide basis, will also be able to cast a referendum vote on the legalization of marijuana for medical reasons and recreational use.