2022 Unstoppable Voters Fellow Alannah Ray is creating mystery bags that are actually taking the mystery out of voting in Wisconsin!

Video by Good For You Productions
Alannah Ray
Alannah at National Voter Registration Day 2021. Pictured with Natalie, another UWM student and employee in their office.

Alannah Ray is the Panthers Vote Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (their mascot is Pounce the Panther). In addition to civic engagement work, she is currently pursuing an M.S. in Anthropology and just finished a graduate certificate in Museum Studies this spring at UWM. Her bachelor’s degree is in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Utilizing her multidisciplinary background, she is interested in blending the physical and digital worlds to facilitate education, accessibility, and exploration in all the work she does. As a student herself, Alannah hopes to help break down barriers to help her peers engage in the civic process.

Panthers Vote is the hub for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s student voting initiatives. UWM is a public R1 research university serving over 24,000 students in southeast Wisconsin across three campuses. Our students are at the heart of our pro-voter goals. Panthers Vote works to provide UWM students with the resources and education they need to register to vote, vote, and be civically engaged community members. While we aim to reach all of our students, we are particularly focused on reaching populations at our campus who have been historically marginalized, face additional barriers to voting, or have low rates of voter turnout.

Bringing intrigue and interest back into voting

Through Unstoppable Voters, Alannah is working with Panthers Vote to create mystery bags that are actually taking the mystery out of voting in Wisconsin! These mystery bags serve as voter education toolkits and are being distributed to students across University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campuses, to help mobilize 5,000+ students to follow through with voting and become long-term participants in civic engagement.

During our recent Unstoppable Voters: Milwaukee workshop, we prototyped Alannah’s action and saw in person how great it is! Here’s a picture of the prototype; stay tuned for more from the actions as they unfold.

Alannah on being an Unstoppable Voters Fellow

As someone who works primarily with youth voters (and as a youth voter myself), I know students represent our future. Empowering youth voters to overcome barriers to fully exercise their right to vote presents monumental challenges – challenges that require creative solutions. I am thrilled to learn, collaborate, and work towards those creative solutions as an Unstoppable Voters Fellow.

– Alannah Ray, Panthers Vote Coordinator, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee