DAVID D. HAYNES

Register to vote: Print out this form and take it to your local municipal clerk's office

David D. Haynes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A big part of our job here at the Ideas Lab is encouraging civic engagement. We do that in a variety of ways — through rigorous reporting on responses to social problems, through community conversations with the public (the next one is Nov. 13) and through an ongoing dialogue with readers, to name a few.

Poll worker Shirley Koehler holds up an "I Voted Today!" sticker at Franklin City Hall as voters turned out for Wisconsin's primary election in August.

One thing we know for sure: Wisconsin citizens are better off when they get informed and participate in the political process.

And what could be more important than voting? It's the purest form of political participation.

To make the process of casting your ballot just a little bit simpler on this National Voter Registration Day, we're publishing the State of Wisconsin Voter Registration Application. Just print it out, fill it out and either mail it to your local municipal clerk's office by Oct. 17 or drop it off by Nov. 2. (Look for the state form in our print editions on Wednesday).

We're proudly stealing this idea from The Ithaca Times, which published New York's voter registration form in August. Hat tip: Center for Civic Design and ProPublica, which passed along this idea. Joshua A. Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, and Adam Eichen, a communications strategist for the nonprofit group Equal Citizens, wrote about it in a Washington Post op-ed last week.

If pen and paper is too old-school for you, we got you covered. Register online until Oct. 17 at:

myvote.wi.gov

At the My Vote site, you also can figure out what's on the ballot and where to vote.  You can also find your municipal clerk’s address if you’re mailing in the registration form.

Finally, and this is important, you must provide proof of residence when you register.

You can use your driver's license or state ID card if the address is current, a utility bill, a property tax bill, bank statement or other form of identification. If you're mailing your form in, simply make a copy of your proof of residence and include it in the envelope along with the form.

For a full list of what's acceptable, check out this document — which includes the city's modified voter registration form (Milwaukee also accepts the state form).

And then ... participate in the midterm elections.

No matter your party preference, no matter who you'd like to be the governor, senator or state representative, democracy benefits when you participate. 

So just do it.

Vote.

David D. Haynes is editor of the Ideas Lab, the Journal Sentinel's solutions-focused reporting project.

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