Understanding wards and reporting units is essential to conducting elections. The district makeup of wards influences ballot styles, poll lists, voting equipment programming and reporting of election results. When a city or village annexes territory from a town, it is important to understand how the annexed territory will or will not fit into your existing ward plan.
Wards and Districts
The establishment of wards for purposes of elections and representation is provided in Wis. Stat. § 5.15. Wards are the building blocks from which congressional, state senate, assembly, county supervisory and aldermanic districts are created. All territory, even if unpopulated, must be contained in a ward. Wis. Stat. § 5.15(1)(b).
Within a single ward, there can be only one of each of the following districts: congressional, state senate, assembly and county supervisory district. Wis. Stat. § 5.15(6)(a). In cities, each ward may contain only one aldermanic district. (School district boundaries do not follow ward lines, so there may be more than one school district in a given ward.) Wis. Stat. § 5.15(2)(bm).
A “district” may be one ward or a group of wards. Congressional, state senate and assembly districts are comprised of many wards and cross municipal and county lines. County supervisory districts contain wards in a number of municipalities within the county. Aldermanic districts may be made up of several wards or just one ward within a city. Large or small, all districts are built from wards.
Reporting Units
Election results are reported by “reporting units.” A reporting unit may be one ward or a group of wards combined by resolution of the governing body. In places where the population is less than 35,000, the governing body may provide in the resolution to combine the election results for each set of combined wards. The governing body of a municipality of 35,000 or more may by resolution combine election returns of a ward with an adjacent ward if the ward has a population of 20 or less and the total population of the combined wards would not exceed that municipality’s population range for wards. Wis. Stat. § 5.15(6)(b).
In order to combine two or more wards into one reporting unit, each ward must be made up of like districts. The reporting units for nonpartisan primaries and elections may differ from the reporting units for a partisan primary or general election. Clerks must be mindful of the district composition of the wards within their municipality.
Here is an example:
City of Smith has 10 wards, divided into four aldermanic districts. The City is also located in two Assembly Districts: Assembly District 3 and Assembly District 5 (shaded wards).
|
Spring Primary and Election |
|
Fall Primary and Election |
|||
|
Aldermanic Dist. |
Ward |
|
Ward |
Congressional Dist. |
Assembly Dist. |
|
1 |
1 |
|
1 |
8 |
5 |
|
1 |
2 |
|
2 |
8 |
3 |
|
1 |
3 |
|
3 |
8 |
3 |
|
2 |
4 |
|
4 |
8 |
3 |
|
2 |
5 |
|
5 |
8 |
5 |
|
2 |
6 |
|
6 |
8 |
3 |
|
3 |
7 |
|
7 |
8 |
3 |
|
3 |
8 |
|
8 |
8 |
5 |
|
4 |
9 |
|
9 |
8 |
5 |
|
4 |
10 |
|
10 |
8 |
3 |
For the spring nonpartisan primary or election, the wards with like districts would be combined in reporting units that represent the four aldermanic districts, as illustrated above.
|
Ald. Dist. 1 = Wards 1-3 |
|
Ald. Dist. 2 = Wards 4-6 |
|
Ald. Dist. 3 = Wards 7 & 8 |
|
Ald. Dist. 4 = Wards 9 & 10 |
However, the same reporting unit plan could not be used in a fall partisan primary or election because the wards that make up each aldermanic district are in two different assembly districts, as illustrated in the Fall Primary and Election chart.
Attempting to report by aldermanic district would result in each reporting unit containing wards in different assembly districts (Assembly District 5 wards are bolded).
|
Aldermanic District 1 = Wards 1, 2, 3 |
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Aldermanic District 2 = Wards 4, 5, 6 |
|
Aldermanic District 3 = Wards 7 & 8 |
|
Aldermanic District 4 = Wards 9 & 10 |
In order for the fall reporting units to contain wards of like districts, the configuration would be:
|
Wards 1, 5, 8, 9 (Assembly District 5) |
|
Wards 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 (Assembly District 3) |