By james art Fitchburg Alder Joe Maldonado and DJ Terrance J will host the South Madison Get Out The Vote Party on Saturday, November 2nd, 2:30-4pm at Urban Triage on Madison’s South Side as they look to maximize the number of voters in the Madison area ahead of the upcoming November 5 presidential election.
“The goal of the event is to triple the vote in south Madison and reach underrepresented voters so we can get people out to vote,” Maldonado tells Madison365. “We’ll have food trucks, music, some giveaways and giveaways. It’s going to be a good time.”
The South Madison Get Out The Vote Party will be hosted by Working Families Power, a political and voter engagement nonprofit.
“For people who come to the party, if they can message five of their friends and ask them to vote, they’ll be able to get food and prizes,” Maldonado says. “We’ll be very close to some early voting locations, so people, if they haven’t voted, will be able to walk in and vote right there at the party.”
Early voting locations in South Madison include Goodman South Madison Library, Monroe Street Library, Centro Hispano of Dane County, Freedom Inc. Madison College South Campus, Catholic Multicultural Center, Allied Boys & Girls Club; Fountain of Life Church and Badger Rock Neighborhood Center.
“On this particular day, the Urban League will be open for voting until 3 p.m. and the Goodman South Library will be open until 4 p.m., and they’ll both be right where the party is,” says Maldonado.
In the 2020 presidential election, voter turnout in Dane County was very high at 89.3%. Maldonado hopes to see similar or better numbers this year by picking voters in South Madison, Dane County’s most diverse area.
“Dane County is a really high turnout community, but we want to grab everyone who may or may not have had a plan to vote and make sure we talk to all of our friends and family and get out and get a really high turnout,” he says.
The event will be in the Villager Mall parking lot near Urban Triage, so it’s really easy and affordable for people to stop by in South Madison.
“These elections are extremely important. We of course have a presidential race and a US Senate race and the cities of Madison and Fitchburg have referendums as well as MMSD [Madison Metropolitan School District]. We also have Assembly and Senate races for the state of Wisconsin. We also have the race for Dane County Executive. So this election is really high stakes,” says Maldonado.
“We just want to make sure that people are as engaged as possible and that there are no barriers to people being able to vote. So we want to make sure we’re out where the people are. It will be fun and a great chance to meet people and socialize. We look forward to it.”