Ald. Dimitrijevic sponsors SafeVote budget amendment to support spring elections

Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic – author of the legislation creating the city’s SafeVote program earlier this year – has sponsored an amendment to the Mayor’s proposed 2021 city budget to fund the program in support of the spring primary and general elections in 2021. The goal of SafeVote is to make voting easy and accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and included mailings sent to all households in Milwaukee with information on how to register to vote and request an absentee ballot.

“As COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to climb throughout Wisconsin, it is abundantly clear that our next set of elections this spring will occur with the pandemic still existing in some form or fashion,” said Alderwoman Dimitrijevic. “Because of this it is our job to make sure people have the tools necessary to cast their vote in a safe manner, and given the success of SafeVote this year funding the initiative in 2021 is the most efficient and practical option.”

Upon households receiving SafeVote information in September, nearly 18,500 voters registered or updated their voter registration and approximately 20,000 people requested an absentee ballot. In total, the City of Milwaukee issued 182,522 absentee ballots with 169,519 being returned. To accommodate the more than 1300% increase in vote-by-mail requests, the Election Commission expanded the return options for absentee ballots. 15 drop boxes were purchased and stationed throughout the city, and over 60% of mail-in ballots were returned using drop boxes.  

The SafeVote budget amendment will be heard at the Common Council’s budget adoption meeting today – Friday, November 6^th. The meeting will be televised live on the City Channel (channel 25 on Spectrum Cable and channel 99 on AT&T U-Verse in the City of Milwaukee) and via streaming video on the city website at city.milwaukee.gov/Channel25. 

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.