In-Person Absentee Voting, Neighborhood Organization Updates, Madison Madness, and more!

City of Madison Updates
city updates
Published

March 24, 2025

In-Person Absentee Voting, Neighborhood Organization Updates, Madison Madness, and more!

In-Person Absentee Voting Has Begun

In-person absentee voting for the April 1 election is underway. In-person absentee voting begins two weeks before Election Day. It ends the Sunday before each election, or on March 30. State law prohibits voter registration the Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before each election. Looking for a sample ballot? Visit My Vote WI (link is external). You will need to show ID to receive an absentee ballot. You may register to vote, with proof of address, at any absentee voting location through the Friday before Election Day.

Find out more information including in-person absentee voting hours and locations here.

30+ Neighborhood Organizations Descriptions Have Been Updated

As part of the revamped Neighborhood Organizations website, we've been working to ensure all neighborhood information is accurate and meets updated system requirements. So far, we've updated descriptions for 30+ organizations that did not respond to our earlier requests.

Please take a moment to review your neighborhood's information on the new interactive map and let us know if any further changes are needed. Focus on ensuring your description is concise (150 words or less) and up to date.

Please send any updates or corrections to Neighborhoods@cityofmadison.com

Madison Madness: Fill out a bracket to let us know what you want in your neighborhood

As we get closer to tournament time, the City of Madison is getting into the spirit with a new way for residents to share their perspectives during the ongoing Southwest and Southeast Area Plan processes.

The "Madison Madness" bracket takes aspects of future planning – like housing, neighborhood amenities, transportation, and recreation – and puts them into a bracket format, allowing residents to think about their priorities and share them with the city in a fun and unique way.

The bracket is part of ongoing community engagement efforts as part of the Southwest and Southeast Area Plans, in addition to previous public engagement events and resident surveys.

The first page of the bracket(link is external) will ask users to identify where they live, whether it's in Madison's Southwest or Southeast areas, in Madison but outside of the current planning areas, or somewhere else. Responses from those outside of the Southwest and Southeast areas will still be used to inform future planning studies.

Pick Up Free Seeds from Eight Madison Public Library Locations

Madison Public Library's popular  Garden Seed Giveaway (link is external) began Thursday, March 6 at eight library locations. All libraries (with the exception of Central Library) will offer a variety of flower, herb, and produce seeds for visitors, free of charge.

In 2025, approximately 50 different species of seeds will be available and each year librarians modify their ordering based on both public feedback and observation. For instance, flowers and herbs have been consistently popular across locations, and so there will be more of each offered this year at each location. 

Streets Division Updates

  • Brush Collection: Some neighborhoods will see collection start the week of March 30.  Will it be yours?  Only one way to find out.  Go to www.cityofmadison.com/BrushCollection and enter your address into the form.  The form will tell you the exact date on when you should put out brush for pickup.

  • Yard Waste Collection: Yard waste collection, which is different from brush pickup, starts later in April.  Get that pickup schedule at www.cityofmadison.com/YardWaste. Enter your address into the form and get the dates to set out your leaves, weeds, and other plant material you have raked or pulled from your lawns and gardens.

  • Recycle Better Class Returns in April!:  We're doing the recycle better class again with Sustain Dane on April 17 (and again in July).  The class provides you loads of recycling information and then asks you to teach others what you learned to help share this information.  More details can be found on the Sustain Dane website.

  • Use the New Online Recyclopedia:  As we're cleaning up in the spring, please use the new online Recyclopedia to lookup how to handle your disposal questions. We have a lot of stuff in there, and we keep adding more answers.  The more people use it, the better and more useful the tool can be for everyone.  If you're searching and an answer doesn't pop up, be sure to suggest we add that answer to the tool.  You can find the online Recyclopedia in a lot of spots on the new Streets Division page, and it's also found right here.

  • Food Scraps Recycling Drop-off Returns Soon:  At the end of April, the farmer's market drop-off program will return to the east side market. Later in the year, the West Community and South Madison market sites will return, too. But there's more good food scraps news!  Dane County Waste and Renewables has food scraps composting news to share. We don't want to steal their thunder, so if you're curious, check out their site for their composting news – including more residential drop-off points coming later this year.