The Wisconsin Elections Commission is pleased to announce the release of the updated version of Wisconsin’s voter registration form (EL-131). Revisions to the form have been finalized and the form has been posted to the agency website in the forms section. Manuals, training materials and the WisVote voter registration screens will be updated to reflect the changes made to the form. The WEC is in the process of translating the voter registration form into Spanish and Hmong and will release those versions of the form once the translation and review process is complete. Please note that you can continue to use previous versions of the Wisconsin voter registration form until that stock is gone. The new EL-131 forms can be found on the forms page.
Over the years, WEC staff has received suggested revisions and comments about voter and clerk experience with the voter registration form. The WEC decided to revise the voter registration form to better serve voters ahead of the 2020 election cycle. Staff consulted with design professionals from the Center for Civic Design regarding best practices for conducting user-centered design research and applying the data collected to the redesign process. The redesign process was supported by data gathered through usability sessions that were held around the state with a diverse set of participants. These sessions were structured to allow participants to navigate the form and provide feedback to a standard set of inquiries regarding their experience completing the form. The standardized data collected during these sessions was then used to inform the design direction for the new version.
The overall goal of revising the EL-131 was to create a paper form that allows voters and clerks to quickly and efficiently complete the registration process, while increasing the quality of the data collected on the form. WEC staff created multiple prototypes that were tested during more than 75 different review sessions with clerks, members of voter outreach groups, and members of the general public. The participants came from many different areas of Wisconsin and had vastly different levels of experience and interest in the voting process. This usability testing process allowed staff to determine if previous versions of the form were fixed with the revised version.
A chart that identifies all the sections that have been changed on the form throughout this process and that provides analysis of these changes is attached as Appendix A.