Michael Fenchel, co-founder of the Vote (Mostly) Online website, announced Wednesday the official launch of the site geared toward increasing voter turnout among younger eligible voters.
The website offers an outlet for voters to register and order an absentee ballot from their own computer or mobile device.
Fenchel addressed the decrease in votership on behalf of young Wisconsin individuals.
“Millennials are the next leaders of our generation, yet we’re more engaged with our smartphones than we are with politics,” Fenchel said. “The problem is not that we don’t care. The problem is that the current voting process doesn’t fit with our mobile lifestyle.”
The website offers three steps for users to follow and eventually submit their vote. The first step involves filling out an online registration form for unregistered users. Vote (Mostly) Online allows users to upload a photo of their license as proof of residence. Registered users can go directly to step two and request a ballot form.
The ballot form is considered an absentee ballot that is mailed to users free of charge. The package includes a prepaid, preaddressed envelope for voters to send directly to their local clerk’s office.
“They can go through all of this with most things that Millennials don’t have such as available printers or envelopes or stamps,” Fenchel said.
The third step helps voters to educate themselves on which candidate to choose. Information on each candidate is provided by nonpartisan third parties to allow voters to research and make an educated decision.
“This is part of our method to make sure that voters are more engaged,” Fenchel said.
Voters also have the decision to select an “undecided” option on the site until their ballot arrives in the mail.
Fenchel said the founders are initiating more communication with younger residents to increase awareness.
“We are launching a campaign now that we’ve released this [website] to work with coordinators of student outreach groups, both from student leaders themselves and also other organizations that have ground teams on campus,” Fenchel said.
Fenchel said he is hoping the website will process at least ten thousand votes for the first year as a “benchmark of success.”
