U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., walked with dozens of students and community members up State Street Wednesday as they prepared to cast their votes early after holding a rally in Library Mall.
""People are busy, students are studying, older people sometimes are not able to get out on election day,"" Feingold said. ""What early voting does is give us an opportunity to have the maximum possible democracy.""
Feingold recalled his time as a student at UW-Madison when one could not vote early ""without an ironclad excuse.""
Democratic 77th assembly district candidate Dane County Supervisor Brett Hulsey and his Green Party opponent Ben Manski also appeared at the rally.
""Voting early is important and very convenient for students and others to do it at home, and it's a great chance to get the bird in the hand,"" Hulsey said.
Manski agreed with Hulsey on the benefits of early voting, saying ""It's very important that students ensure their vote is counted.""
Many students were excited to take the chance to vote early and come out to support Feingold's re-election campaign.
Junior Megan Reichert said she attended the event because she has always been interested in Feingold as a politician.
Fifth year senior Michael Shumway said he voted early because ""it just makes sense to do it now.""
Feingold said he hopes early voters will encourage their peers to vote Nov. 2.
""It means that you don't have to wait until Nov. 2 to cast your ballot, so you can vote and you can run around this campus Nov. 2 gathering your friends and buddies and making sure they vote,"" he said.
Feingold also took the rally as an opportunity to joke about his conflict with the NFL over his recent campaign advertisement.
""The NFL was upset last night because I put Randy Moss' bad behavior in my ad,"" he said. ""But you know what happened? Because I did that, he got traded back to the Vikings.""
