In the three weeks heading into the April 5 elections, we are phoning supporters of Grassroots North Shore to boost turnout as much as possible. In particular, we will be asking people to support candidates we have endorsed:

• Russ Feingold, US Senator
• JoAnne Kloppenburg, Supreme Court Justice
• Chris Larson, Milwaukee County Executive
• Helen Dugan, Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge
• Jean Kies, Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge

In addition, we will be asking everyone to commit to contacting five people they know — regardless of where they live in Wisconsin — to urge them to vote and to contact five additional people.

We know that when we increase turnout, we increase our chances of electing Democrats and progressives. We also know that the nonpartisan spring elections tend to be low turnout affairs. It's likely that most of the supporters of Grassroots North Shore vote pretty regularly. But it never hurts to remind them AND to engage them in contacting others who might be less likely to vote.

This year we are especially promoting early voting. That's because the new election laws — especially photo ID — are likely to slow the pace of voting on election day. If we can encourage people to vote early, we can help ease the problem on April 5.