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News
The Marquette Tribune
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
VIRUS: Marquette voter IDs issued online Continued from page 1 requests online and sign electronically. The deadline to request an ID card is April 5 at 5 p.m. The Marquette Card Office will then approve the information and then print the card, scan it and email a scanned copy back to students. Students can then print and use a copy when registering or requesting an absentee ballot. Students who previously registered to vote but have since moved need to re-register. This includes moving rooms or apartments in a specific building, such as changing rooms in a residence hall. To register to vote in person, students are able to register at the Municipal Clerk’s Office at the City of Milwaukee Election Commission up until the close of business April 3, or 4:45 p.m. Proof of residence is required to register to vote in addition to identification. Marquette students can log into their Checkmarq accounts to access the required paperwork by navigating to their student account and clicking on student account activity. Although options to vote are still available for interested students, it is likely that turnout will be lower, Amber Wichowsky, an associate professor of political science, said.
A barrier for students who requested an absentee ballot and have since moved locations is that they have to contact the municipal clerk because the ability to change it online has passed. “We would expect younger voters to find it particularly challenging,” Wichowsky said. She said that from a public health perspective younger people may feel less concerned about in-person voting, but there are more hurdles to face on election day for younger voters such as being more unfamiliar with the process of absentee voting. Rorholm said that absentee ballots can be filled out without a voter ID if someone is considered “indefinitely confined.” This means that those who qualify as confined in their home or other facility due to age, physical illness or infirmity, or are disabled for an indefinite period of time are able to request absentee ballots. Wichowsky added that the current state of the presidential primary could decrease the motivation to vote: Joe Biden’s lead over Bernie Sanders may influence some Democratic voters into thinking they shouldn’t bother voting. However, she said there are other significant races in the election. “Normally, for these lower salience elections, going doorto-door and canvassing is an
Tests of Coronavirus in Wisconsin 1,351 positive cases 16 deaths 17,375 negative cases source: Wisconsin Department of Health Services Graphic by Annie Mattea anne.mattea@marquette.edu
effective tactic in mobilizing voters,” she said. Groups have put a halt on canvassing because of the coronavirus, removing one type of social pressure that motivates voters. Riordan Brennan, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences from Illinois, registered to vote in Wisconsin shortly after he arrived at Marquette. He first voted in Wisconsin in the 2018 midterm general election. Brennan said it is difficult to predict what turnout will look like because it’s unclear how many people would have turned out if not for the coronavirus. “Its already hard enough for
college students to vote in the state they’re going to school in,” Brennan said, emphasizing that the outbreak could cause additional problems in the current circumstances. Brennan also said that voter turnout for local elections is often low and this outbreak can bring it even lower. He emphasized the local issues in this election due to the fact that Joe Biden has a large lead in delegate count. However, in 2018, Wisconsin had a record-breaking year for midterm election turnout, with nearly 2.7 million voters. Rorholm said that elections in
Wisconsin are often won by slim margins, and a lot of students in particular may not be voting. “It’s heartbreaking because the last election was won by a few thousand votes, and there are 14,000 students at Marquette,” he said. Despite the barriers, Brennan said that it is especially important to be voting right now. “If you look around you and look at all the chaos that is going on … The people you would be voting for are the people who would be making the decisions right now and as we can see these decisions are extremely consequential,” Brennan said.
Polarization intensifies, increases party divide Americans more consistent in expressed ideology By Nicole Laudolff
nicole.laudolff@marquette.edu
In recent years, one phenomenon has become more and more prevalent in politics: polarization, or the growing divide between liberal and conservative. “This trend has a few implications,” adjunct professor of political science at Marquette Brandon Savage said. “For one, more people now default to their pre-existing partisan tendencies come election time, meaning people are far more likely to vote for a preferred party regardless of who the candidate may be or what views they advocate for.” Reputable data seems to support this claim. In 2014, Pew Research, a nonpartisan “fact tank” according to its website, reported the percentage of Americans who consistently express either liberal or conservative views has more than doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%.
Pew Research, in the same series of surveys, also found “partisan antipathy” increased significantly during this period. Among Republicans, the percentage that held “very unfavorable” views of the Democratic Party jumped from 17% to 43%. Similarly, the percentage of Democrats who held very unfavorable views of the GOP also rose sharply 16% to 38%. “From the perspective of either party, the ‘other side’ is becoming not only unacceptable, but evil,” Savage said. Although the reasoning behind America’s increasingly polarized environment is debated between academics and political pundits, Savage said he believes the cause lies in media availability. “Because of the sheer quantity of information at our fingertips thanks to the internet, we have the ability to seek out whatever info we want to and to create our own personal networks,” Savage said. “However, the information we choose to find often does little to challenge our pre-existing beliefs and instead reinforces them. Essentially, we
Polarization Facts 1994 vs. 2014
Americans who consistently express either liberal or conservative views: Republicans who express highly unfavorable views of Democrats:
1994
2014
17%
43%
10% in 1994
21% in 2014
Democrats who express highly unfavorable views of Republicans:
1994
2014
16%
38%
source: Pew Research Center Graphic by Kelli Arseneau kelli.arseneau@marquette.edu
create echo chambers.” To avoid becoming polarized, Savage said he recommends voters should be informed beyond the traditional news sources they typically follow. If someone is an avid consumer of MSNBC or CNN, which tend to have a liberal leaning, Savage said it may be of some benefit to watch Fox News occasionally, which has a pronounced conservative leaning.
However, avoiding polarization altogether is still a difficult task. Many are raised in households and communities with a clear partisan identity, Savage said. Political preferences are consequently determined long before someone is of age to vote. “It’s important to expose ourselves to all ends of the political spectrum,” second-year law student and founder of the recently created Our Democracy USA Brian Hendricks said.
Our Democracy USA is a studentled organization dedicated to electing progressive, grassroots candidates to all levels of government in 2020 Hendricks said. Despite the organization having a political leaning, Hendricks said he and other members avoid polarization by focusing on issue politics rather than partisan identities. “I encourage young people, especially first-time voters, to find an issue they’re passionate about, do their research, and vote for whoever they feel is best fit to assess that issue — regardless of party lines,” Hendricks said. Hendricks said he also urges voters to pay attention to the entire political scene — not exclusively the primaries or the presidential race. “In the upcoming (Wisconsin) April 7 election, not only will the primary elections be underway, but also various local elections and a vastly important State Supreme Court race between Justice Daniel Kelly and Dane County Judge Jill Karofskym,” Hendricks said.