Morning Update

Ready to vote?

Early voting starts today!

In this newsletter

Photo by Hayley Sperling

Good morning, Madison!

Early in-person voting starts today!!

Now through April 2, you can cast your ballot for the Spring Election at one of dozens of locations around Madison.

Here are the basics of early voting.

You'll need an accepted form of ID.
If you're already registered, great! You're ready to go. If not, you can register at the polls, just don't forget to bring proof of residence.
Of note: Registration will not be available at early in-person voting locations Apr. 1 or 2.
If you requested an absentee ballot, you can return the completed document to an in-person absentee voting location during the location’s voting hours.

Happy voting!

— Hayley

🗳️ Let's get civically engaged.

The election is April 4. But there are two events happening today to help you learn more about the candidates in the races for School Board and Wisconsin Supreme Court.
School Board: The Cap Times is hosting a School Board candidate forum tonight at East High School. Former Madison educator Blair Feltham and former Madison City Council candidate Badri Lankella are both on the ballot for Seat 6. Seat 7 incumbent Nicki Vander Meulen — who is running unopposed — will also be at the forum.
Supreme Court: The State Bar of Wisconsin will host judges Daniel Kelly and Janet Protasiewicz in a debate this afternoon. Though the race is officially nonpartisan, Kelly is firmly considered the conservative candidate while Protasiewicz holds liberal views. You can stream the debate online.

*Image via Lindbergh Elementary School Facebook*

🏫 Goodbye Lindbergh Elementary School?

The north side elementary school might be the next Madison school to get a new name.
A group of more than a dozen community organizations submitted a proposal to the district asking it to remove Charles Lindbergh's name from the school due to the aviator's nazi sympathies and antisemitic views, according to the State Journal.
The bigger picture: If successful, Lindbergh would become the fifth Madison school to be renamed since January 2020. Most recently, the School Board voted to rename Jefferson Middle School after Black voting rights activist Ezekiel Gillespie.

🎧 There's a new podcast in town.

Wisconsin Public Radio has a new morning podcast. On “Wisconsin Today,” WPR's “Morning Edition” Host Alex Crowe will give you the top stories from around the state in about 10 minutes.
New episodes are released Monday through Friday. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

💸 The money behind Madison's City Council races.

An advocacy group has spent $170,000 on various advertisements for 10 City Council races. The Realtors Association of South Central Wisconsin (RASCW) is the group behind the money, according to Isthmus.
The money has been used to send out mailers, buy online advertisements, and send text messages on behalf of candidates. This level of spending is an anomaly for local campaigns. Much of the messaging in the advertisements center around affordable housing.

❄️ Your lunchtime read: Finding solid ground on frozen Madison lakes.

Via Madison Magazine: "It was hard to disappear in a town like Madison. I couldn’t walk to Madison Sourdough without crossing paths with an acquaintance, nor could I peruse the grain aisle at Festival Foods without bumping into a friend. My friends and I have this joke that the city of Madison is a movie set, each of us perfectly placed to run into each other at any given moment, always beholden to one another, always a side character in the story of each others’ lives.

But there is one place you can go where everything ceases to exist for a few months out of the year. Out in the middle of the frozen lake, there is no one to run into but yourself."

📬

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🎙️ Today on City Cast Madison

What Bank Failures Mean for Madison Tech

With big bank failures dominating the headlines, we wondered: how did Madison tech start-ups weather the storm? Did the small and somewhat insulated nature of our tech community shield it from bigger problems? Or could a bank run happen here? And is more government investment for local tech an answer to reducing dependence on Silicon Valley?

For answers, we turned to Scott Resnick, COO of Hardin Design and Development, and a board member of Starting Block Madison, a startup and technology hub.

Listen now