'Our voting home': Group presses for Milwaukee's Midtown Center early voting site to remain

About three dozen people gathered Thursday outside Midtown Center to press for a resolution that allows Milwaukee's most popular early voting site to remain at the shopping center.

"Let Milwaukee vote!!" read one sign.

Another sign bearing a picture of the late Civil Rights icon John Lewis included the words, "Protect our vote!"

"Midtown is the heart of the Black community, and when it comes to expressing our voice, this is the place," said Rev. Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls, which organized the gathering.

Afterward, the group planned to deliver to Mayor Cavalier Johnson a petition signed by more than 500 people urging officials to find a way to prevent the site at 5740 W. Capitol Dr. from moving.

The effort came after city officials said last week that the voting site on Milwaukee's north side may be in jeopardy because of challenges reaching a rental agreement with its new Atlanta-based owners.

City officials have said they are working to find a resolution that allows site to remain at Midtown Center but also has the city paying fair market value for the space.

The center was sold to Atlanta-based Laureate Capital LLC earlier this year, according to city records. A representative of the company previously said the owners want the city to stay but did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Lewis said the group would be talking with elected leaders in the coming weeks about the importance of Midtown.

Voters know they can trust the process there, don't have to wait in long lines and feel their civic participation is appreciated, he said.

"Those who would move or close this site know that they are taking away our collective voice and our power, and we won't stand for that," Lewis said.

In both the 2020 and 2022 general elections, about 30% of the absentee ballots cast in the city during early voting came from the site — accounting for more than 18,200 and 8,500 ballots, respectively, according to the city Election Commission.

Corinne Rosen, Wisconsin state director at the Working Families Party, told those gathered that changing the site would be taking away peoples' right to vote.

"This is a location that people know about" she said. "It is next to a grocery store that people shop at. It is in a community where there are working families, and families come to vote here."

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Group presses for Milwaukee Midtown Center early voting site to remain