How you can help educate the public about Wisconsin elections

The next is a letter to members of the WNA and WBA from John Smalley, who not too long ago retired from the newspaper business and is now a public data officer for the Wisconsin Elections Fee. Smalley additionally serves on the board of the WNA Basis.

Heat greetings to members of the Wisconsin Newspaper Affiliation and the Wisconsin Broadcasters Affiliation.

By the use of introduction, I’m John Smalley, a longtime and now retired journalist from Wisconsin and former editor on the La Crosse Tribune (2002-2008) and the Wisconsin State Journal (2008-2020). Lately I’m working part-time for the Wisconsin Elections Fee within the Public Info Workplace. I’m additionally a previous member of the WNA Board of Administrators and a present member of the WNA Basis Board.

I’m writing right now to let of an essential alternative you’ll be able to participate in to assist educate the general public about how Wisconsin’s elections system works and construct confidence and belief in our democratic system.

As information suppliers, I don’t need to let you know that public confidence in our elections system has suffered over the previous a number of years. You see the results of this setting every single day in your reporting.

Right here on the Wisconsin Elections Fee, we see an absence of public understanding of the state’s elections system as a major contributor to the decline in public confidence, compounded by a social media age by which viral false data can usually take the place of correct data and correct context.

To assist fill the void of details about how the mechanics of our democracy actually work, the WEC’s public data workplace has spent this yr growing an training marketing campaign that can discover the varied elements of elections administration in Wisconsin in an easy and hopefully enjoyable and fascinating manner. The undertaking consists of a collection of 4 quick movies, about 6 minutes every.

The final week of September, the movies will probably be made obtainable for highschool social research lecturers to point out of their lecture rooms, producing an interesting civic-minded dialogue with college students.

We additionally hope to share the movies with most people through what we hope will probably be a profitable marketing campaign of home advertisements and radio PSAs statewide.

That’s the place you are available in.

Our particular ask is straightforward: we’d be very appreciative should you would start working print advertisements our companions have developed no less than as soon as per week for 4 weeks, beginning the final week in September. Extra frequency than that with the advertisements can be welcome, in fact. And to our broadcast associates, we’ll recognize any airtime we are able to get, ideally working a 30-second spot we’ve created a couple of occasions per week over those self same 4 weeks. Once more, any elevated frequency can be welcome and appreciated.

We now have labored with an ideal design workforce at Multi Media Channels within the Fox Valley to create two camera-ready home advertisements that will probably be made obtainable in numerous sizes by means of the traditional WNA channels. (Shout-out to Kim and Kris at MMC for his or her nice work on the advertisements!). On the similar time, we’ll create a ready-to-air 30-second spot that WBA management will make obtainable to all members.

Our video vendor is in post-production now, ending off remaining edits on the video collection, and we really feel excellent concerning the “tough reduce” variations we’ve seen up to now. In the meantime, our MMC associates are near finishing the very sharp wanting home advertisements. And the 30-second radio spot will probably be prepared quickly as nicely.

We are going to launch the content material the final week of September and encourage lecturers to begin utilizing the content material in lecture rooms then. Our aim is to make the video content material as accessible as attainable, and we’ll encourage media members and some other companions to publish the video hyperlinks on their web sites.

By mid-September we’ll ship the home advertisements and the radio spot to the 2 associations for additional distribution to their members.

We now have obtained help from many companions, together with the WNA and the WBA. The WNA Basis previously endorsed the undertaking at a gathering earlier this yr.

We now have additionally partnered with the Division of Public Instruction, and they are going to be serving to us get our video collection – full with lesson plans – into highschool lecture rooms throughout Wisconsin. We now have a younger girl serving because the host/narrator in every of the movies, and he or she brings a variety of power. We’ve tried to make the movies enjoyable, full of life, and fast-moving.

In closing, we need to level out that this elections training effort is particularly not a get-out-the-vote drive or a push to extend voter registrations in excessive faculties or elsewhere. Whereas we undoubtedly need individuals to register and to get out and vote, the purpose of this undertaking is to easily share factual details about how the elections course of actually works in Wisconsin. We search to tell and to offer helpful, fundamental details about voting in our state.

Our aim is to extend elections literacy and understanding amongst Wisconsin residents, together with soon-to-be voters at the highschool stage, together with members of most people. We consider a better-informed citizenry is an efficient factor in the case of elections, and serving to to teach the general public is a key a part of election safety and integrity. We hope you agree and can be part of us within the undertaking.

Please let me know you probably have any questions or want to be taught extra concerning the undertaking. And thanks prematurely for any help you’ll be able to present.

Greatest needs,

John Smalley, Public Info Workplace, Wisconsin Elections Fee

John.smalley@wisconsin.gov / 608-790-0336