On March 13, we published our April Election Voter Guide on VOTE411. This gave all voters approximately three weeks to learn about and compare the candidates running for local office in the April 4 election and make informed decisions.

The guide for this election covers competitive races in Whitewater and 20 surrounding communities in Walworth and Jefferson counties. It includes candidates running in 28 races for common council, school board, and village and town boards and 8 measures. We reached out to 66 candidates to invite them to participate in the Vote411 platform by answering our questions, some of which include: what would you do to promote civility and cooperative problem-solving in your community, what is the most pressing social service issue facing your community, and what should local government do about it? We had a 38% response rate. This was the first time we provided translated the race names, candidate questions, and referenda into Spanish. We asked candidates to provide their answers both in English and Spanish. Six candidates responded in Spanish: 5 were from Whitewater and one was from Lake Geneva. 

LWVWI supplied a report for the usage of Vote411 during the Spring Election. Together we provided much-needed candidate and referenda information to over 30k voters in Wisconsin! That's over 2x as many voters that viewed our spring voter guide in 2022 and over 5x as many voters that viewed our guide compared to the 2019 spring election (the most comparable election)!

Fort Atkinson Viewers: 70
Whitewater Viewers: 231
Lake Geneva Viewers: 79

Anne Hartwick provided technical support for the Vote411 platform while Ellen Penwell and Lynn Binnie did the work necessary for making the local races and measures available to our constituents. This involved reaching out to municipal clerks as well as candidates to confirm race, referendum, and contact information.