All four of the 2020 elections in La Crosse County had increased turnouts over previous comparable elections. In the November General Election, the turnout in La Crosse County was an historically high 88.63% of registered voters. The number of registered voters also increased by 6,271 between the February and November elections. How did the Voter Services Committee play a role in these numbers while at the same time figuring out how to realign during a pandemic? There are multiple ways that this happened, but three stand out.

We focused on students. Prior to the closing of high schools in the spring, we had assemblies of seniors at Central, Logan, Holmen and Onalaska High Schools. Once COVID hit, we turned our entire presentation into one that we sent virtually to area principals and social studies teachers. We are very proud of our resulting YouTube “Every Student Vote! Everything You Need to Know.” It can be viewed here.  This work was the result of a partnership with the Driftless Voter Coalition and the Central High School Feminist Club.

We also formed a postsecondary committee of members Anita Evans, Jan Gallagher, Barb Roberts and Paul Schoenfeld who were designated contacts with UWL, Viterbo and WTC. This resulted in our creating flyers specific to each school, holding outdoor registrations and posting Facebook, Instagram and Twitter GOTV messages that we created and shared with them for use on their schools’ media. Take a look at our Instagram site for a history of our posts. (We’re always looking for new followers.) This work was the result of our on-going partnership with these schools.

In 2020 we also reached out to lower-voting populations. We distributed voting information door-to-door in the wards with historically low voting percentages and higher levels of poverty. On a crisp fall day 30 volunteers hung 3, 800 door hangers, created by us. The remaining 1,200 door hangers were distributed to minority owned businesses, Head Start, and The Hunger Task Force. Our partners in this endeavor were the Driftless Voter Coalition and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

A collaboration with La Crosse County and Driftless Voter Coalition allowed us to reach all of our target populations. Together we contracted with Elevate Media to create animated, still, and voice ads used in social media, radio, television and on billboards. You can view the animations here.  

The Voter Services Committee worked tirelessly and joyfully in 2020. We are aware that much of what we accomplished could not happen without our partners and the generous grant funding from the Bob and Jean Marck Family Fund and the La Crosse Community Foundation.

 

--Chris Haskell

This week we'd like to draw your attention to the features in the second row of our homepage. On the left of this row is our calendar of upcoming events. When you click on each event, you will be taken to a page with more details and a link for event registration if one is needed. If you click on the Calendar tab in the menu at the top of the page, you will see a month-view calendar. Clicking on events in that view will also take you to the same event detail page.

 

On the right is a "widget" that displays our League's Facebook page. The most current posts are displayed, and you can scroll down to view earlier posts. If you click on the title of our page at the top of the widget, another window will open for the entire Facebook page. We'd really appreciate your "Liking" our Facebook page and sharing posts that will interest your FB friends.