The Importance Of The Wisconsin Primary
Everything you should know about Wisconsin’s upcoming primary elections
Written and Illustrated by Elizabeth Karnowski, Culture Staff Writer
The Wisconsin Spring Primary election is on Tuesday, Feb. 16. Although we’ve passed the presidential election, the primaries are still just as important as they would be any other year.
In the upcoming election, voters will cast votes for their top candidate for Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction (MyVote, 2021). Though this may not be a top concern for college students today, that doesn’t mean the importance of the election diminishes. The superintendent makes important decisions about funding, students with disabilities, school curriculum and virtual learning — just to name a few.
The primaries are the first step to the eventual election. The candidates who win the primary will be on the Spring General Election ballot, taking place on April 6, 2021. If you have a preferred candidate, voters should vote for them in the primaries so that there’s more of a chance they move on to the general election.
There are two types of primary elections, open and closed. A closed primary means that the voter must be registered in a political party in order to vote in the election. Wisconsin has open primaries, meaning that registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party’s primary (Ballotpedia, 2021).
The primary elections are imperative to the democratic process. In this election, there are seven candidates on the ballot. Doing research on the candidates before going to vote is imperative in this type of election so that you aren’t voting blindly. It is backward logic to think that the primaries don’t matter, especially when the winners of the primaries eventually lead to the overall election.
We’ve seen the large impact that voting can make in the 2016 and 2020 elections. When voting in a local election, the same effect can happen. If you find yourself unsatisfied with the system and want it to change, that change begins within local elections.
UW-Madison will be offering in-person absentee voting and registration at Memorial Union, February 8th-12th from 11 am until 4 pm. (UW-Madison, 2021). If you plan to vote on February 16th, you should go to your designated polling location based on your address.
Not sure where to start?
There are a ton of resources available for those who need more information on voting:
BadgersVote has an extremely helpful questionnaire you can use to determine where you’re voting, how to register, where you should be registered, and other general information about the upcoming election: go.wisc.edu/StepsToVoteUW
MyVote gives all information on where you should vote based on your address: https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/FindMyPollingPlace
Ballotpedia has hyperlinks to all of the superintendent candidates in order to find out more information about them and who you might want to vote for: https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Superintendent_of_Public_Instruction_election,_2021
Sources
Ballotpedia, “Wisconsin elections, 2021”, Ballotpedia, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_elections,_2021
MyVote Wisconsin, “What’s on my Ballot”, MyVote, 2021. https://myvote.wi.gov/en-US/MyPollingPlace
University of Wisconsin-Madison and Associated Students of Madison, “Voter Information”, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2021. https://vote.wisc.edu/