MILWAUKEE — The Brewers played their final 2020 home game Sunday, so Miller Park shifted to its important new role as an election venue Tuesday on National Voter Registration Day.
The Racing Sausages waved dozens of cars into the parking lot, where the Milwaukee Election Commission and volunteers from Wisconsin Voices passed voter registration paperwork into cars across about a dozen drive-thru lanes.
The Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg said voter registration in the city is down slightly after a dip in turnout in 2016. Voters who have not voted in at least four years have been removed from voter rolls in accordance with state law. Woodall-Vogg said about a quarter of eligible voters in the city are not registered to vote.
“That 25 percent are those often that didn’t vote and don’t vote,” she said. “We really hope they will feel like voting is easy, it’s been made simple and hopefully we are removing as many barriers as possible.”
Wisconsin allows voters to register at polling sites on Election Day, but election officials have encouraged early registration and absentee voting to cut down on crowds during the pandemic.
Any Wisconsin voter who has moved since the last time they voted must also register at their new address. Kaylee Flannery moved to a new Milwaukee address and drove to the ballpark to register Tuesday. She wanted to be certain her registration was correct, so she decided to take care of it in person. Flannery saw the Bucks promote Tuesday’s Miller Park event on social media.
“As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to register,” Flannery said. “It was in the back of my mind, on my to-do list for weeks. As soon as I saw this, I was like, ‘Perfect.’”
Peggy Creer, president of the Milwaukee County League of Women Voters, said anyone on the fence about voting should consider why campaigns have spent so much money on commercials across Wisconsin, a key battleground in the presidential race.
“Those advertisers, who are spending millions of dollars, think your vote is important,” Creer said Tuesday at a news conference. “I hope you will, too.”
From now until Nov. 3, the election is the only contest taking place at Miller Park. The Brewers’ home stadium, as well as the Bucks’ Fiserv Forum, will host early in-person voting beginning Tuesday, Oct. 20.