Riley Vetterkind, @email
MADISON, Wis. – The new year has barely begun, and Wisconsin Elections Commission staff have already accomplished one significant task related to the 2024 election cycle.
The filing deadline for candidates for the 2024 Spring Election, scheduled for April 2, was Tuesday at 5 p.m., and shortly after WEC staff completed initial reviews of each candidate’s nomination papers and declaration of candidacy.
In all, WEC staff thoroughly reviewed filing materials from more than 70 candidates. It’s an all-hands-on-deck effort for the small state agency, as each filing petition takes about an hour for a specialist to review. Once an initial assessment is complete, a second WEC specialist performs an additional review. WEC staff offer this preliminary review service as a courtesy to candidates.
The first review is to ensure that the required information from the candidate, the circulator, and the signers appear on the candidate’s nomination papers and that the signers all list addresses that are within the district of the open seat.
“The second review is to double-check our work and make sure that we didn’t miss anything,” said WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe. “It also helps to have two reviews on each petition to make sure that we are confident in the number of valid signatures that we find for the candidate.”
Wolfe said the review process for the Spring Election cycle “went incredibly smoothly.”
The number of required signatures on nomination papers varies, depending on the race. For Circuit Court judges outside of Milwaukee County, candidates need a minimum of 200 signatures and a maximum of 400. Milwaukee County Circuit Court judges and Court of Appeals judges need a minimum of 1,000 signatures and a maximum of 2,000.
Other than April’s Presidential Preference Primary, which runs concurrently with the nonpartisan Spring Election, this Spring Election in Wisconsin is for judicial offices and other nonpartisan offices at the local level. There are no statewide nonpartisan offices up for election. In the event there are more than two candidates in a race, a primary election will be held on Feb. 20.
The Spring Election candidates are not set in stone yet. Candidates who haven’t already done so must file their Statement of Economic Interests with Wisconsin Ethics Commission by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5.
Additionally, parties can challenge nomination papers until Friday, Jan. 5. Also, candidates have until that time to provide correcting affidavits due to errors of signers or circulators of nomination papers.
Members of the public and the media may request a copy of Circuit and District Court judge candidates’ nomination papers for free by making a request at the WEC’s Badger Voters website: https://badgervoters.wi.gov/. Local nomination papers must be requested from the local filing officer. For more information about steps candidates must take to get on the ballot, please visit the following web page: https://elections.wi.gov/candidates/state-candidates#4257225834-3547603…;
After the challenge deadline has passed, the Commission will consider any challenges and officially approve the list of candidates at a Ballot Access meeting on Jan. 9.
More information on the 2024 Spring Election and each candidate’s filing status can be found on the WEC’s election web page https://elections.wi.gov/elections. The information is listed underneath the 2024 Spring Election tile.
Media members may find the “Candidates Tracking by Office” document most helpful in determining which candidates have filed materials. Please keep in mind that the “Approved,” “Denied,” or “Pending” status of each candidate is not final until the Commission acts on Jan. 9. The tracking document may be updated before Jan. 9.
Presidential Preference Selection Committee
In a process separate from the WEC’s nomination paper review process, Wisconsin’s Presidential Preference Selection Committee – a committee defined by state statute § 8.12 that is independent from the WEC – selected one Democrat and six Republicans to appear as candidates on the ballot for the Presidential Preference Vote on April 2, 2024.
The committee met in the State Capitol Tuesday and approved the candidates from lists submitted by representatives of the two political parties permitted by statute to participate in the presidential primary. The Committee has the sole discretion to determine those individuals whose candidacies are generally recognized or advocated in the national news media for placement on Wisconsin’s presidential primary ballot. The order below reflects the order the names were read out loud by the committee during the public meeting:
Republican
Chris Christie
Ron DeSantis
Nikki Haley
Asa Hutchinson
Vivek Ramaswamy
Donald Trump
Democratic
Joe Biden
The signed minutes of the Presidential Preference Selection Committee’s meeting, which list the committee’s members, are available at the following link in the Spring Election 2024 tile: https://elections.wi.gov/elections Click on “2024 Presidential Preference Selection Committee Minutes_signed.pdf”
Tuesday’s meeting opens a four-week window in which candidates chosen by the Committee may opt out, or those not chosen may circulate nominating petitions to get on the ballot. To be removed from the ballot, a candidate must file a disclaimer with the Wisconsin Elections Commission by January 30. To get on the ballot, a candidate who was not chosen by the Committee must collect at least 1,000 signatures from each of Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts by January 30. The candidates’ ballot order will be selected at random after the deadline.
In the Presidential Preference Primary, an elector may vote on the ballot of only one political party.