While home from college last month on holiday break, about 1,200 recent grads of the Mequon-Thiensville School District opened a peculiar piece of mail: a letter urging them to approve an upcoming $7.5 million referendum and a form they could use to request an absentee ballot.
The idea? By targeting college kids who might not otherwise vote on local issues, an advocacy group is trying to tap into a sympathetic audience of students who can vote in the district but who aren’t likely to own property and pay property taxes.