UW-Madison senior Megan Lipke registered to vote when approached by a volunteer armed with a clipboard on State Street nearly two months ago.
But after waiting in line for more than 30 minutes to vote at the city clerk's office, she was told there was no record of her registration anywhere.
And the problem seems to be pervasive.
\Wow, I wonder how many people think they're registered and they're really not,"" Lipke said to the official.
Under her breath the official muttered, ""You have no idea.""
The registration flood
New Voters Project State Field Director Bruce Speight said his campaign registered nearly 22,000 new voters in Madison and more than 135,000 statewide.
Once collected and sorted, each form is supposed to be delivered to the respective city clerk to be reviewed and processed.
""We definitely have a tight process for making sure that once the forms are completed they come back to our office and then we deliver them to the appropriate city clerk's office,"" Speight said.
However, Wisconsin State Elections Board Director Kevin Kennedy said the turnover can prove problematic.
""Anytime you deal with paper, something can go wrong,"" he said.
Kennedy said with the influx of registrations, forms are easily misplaced and can end up in the wrong hands. He said the State Elections Board office gets nearly 1,000 misdirected registrations a day.
""I kind of joke about the fact that somebody's going to buy a car from somebody from the New Voters Project and they are going to take out the back seat and find 10 or 12 registration forms right there,"" he said.
As voter registrations pour in, the city clerk's office is scrambling to process and validate each application while facilitating early voting.
In processing countless registrations daily, Kennedy said the officials often encounter discrepancies of misinformation, duplicate registrations and illegible applications.
""They check the forms to see if on their face they are valid, and they often will find three or four registrations for the same person,"" Kennedy said. ""If there is a conflict between the information, they will send a letter or contact the voter if they can.""
Speight said the New Voters Project has received numerous returned registrations citing poor penmanship or not enough information, claims he said are often disputable.
""It's absurd. It seems to me they would at least take a stab at it or they would mark it so they could figure it out when someone comes to vote,"" he said. ""It's the responsibility of clerks to process registration forms-not send them back to people who are collecting them.""
In these cases, the New Voters Project attempts to contact each of the rejected electors, he said.
However, Lipke never received notification from either the city clerk's office or the New Voters Project.
How to ensure your vote
Luckily, Lipke was equipped with the proper forms of identification.
In Wisconsin, voters can simply register to vote at the polling place on the day of the election granted they have the proper forms of identification-a current form of ID with a mailing address in the given polling area.
However, this is problematic for students who do not have a Wisconsin driver's license with their current Madison address listed. Also, students who have moved must reregister under their current living address at their respective polling place.
For those who do not have a current Wisconsin driver's license, Kennedy recommends bringing a utility bill with your name and current address listed as insurance.
Kennedy advises voters to not only come prepared with identification, but also come prepared to wait. Head to the polls between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. when it is expected to be less crowded, he said.
""The registrations are adding a real challenge, but I think the biggest challenge is the fact that we are going to have so many people going to the polling place on Election Day,"" Kennedy said.
""Be prepared. Be patient. Be counted,"" he said.
