THANK YOU!
The WEC appreciates all the hard work you've done to ensure another efficient and secure election!
PLAY BALL!
It's officially baseball season, so that means it's time to wrap up the Spring Election. We're tossing you some resources so you can knock your post-election tasks out of the park.
Contents
New look coming to Badger Voters
If you are not familiar, Badger Voters is a website established by the WEC to provide a simple and automated way for the public to request voter data lists and candidate nomination papers.
We provide two basic types of data as standard requests: voter records and absentee records as well as PDF scans of candidate nomination papers.
In the next few weeks, we will be releasing a new site that will have a familiar layout and functionality, but with better back-end performance and a visual refresh.
Reconciliation resources available to help clerks
For clerks who manage their own elections in WisVote, now that the election is finished, it's time for post-election reconciliation.
Section 5.4 of the WisVote User Manual will walk you through the reconciliation process step-by-step. You can find that manual on WEC's The Learning Center (also known as "TLC").
Still have questions? Then be sure to sign up for the WisVote 2023 Spring Post-Election Webinar on Tuesday, April 25 at 10 a.m. where WEC staff will present an updated review of the reconciliation process. You can find the sign-up for that on TLC as well.
Twitter Profile Labels
Twitter has undergone some changes recently due to its new ownership status. One of the most significant changes is the social media platform's new profile labels – the system of different colored check marks that has replaced the blue check mark on verified Twitter accounts – and how it impacts government social media accounts. The legacy blue verified check mark on Twitter let people know that an account of public interest was authentic. Twitter began phasing out this legacy verification system on April 1, 2023.
Under Twitter's new verification system, you will eventually lose your blue check mark if you had one. Twitter is replacing this system with a multi-color system of check marks: blue check marks mean an account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue (its paid service); gold check marks mean an account is an official business account; and gray check marks mean an account represents a government/multilateral organization or a government/multilateral official.
A gray check mark is available to state and local government agencies and multilateral groups at no cost. You can apply for a gray check mark using this web form . See how Twitter defines eligibility for the gray check mark here . As the phase-out of Twitter's legacy verification system has already begun, we recommend getting your application in ASAP if you have a blue check mark or no check mark.
If you already have a gray check mark, you do not need to take any action.
If your application is denied, please contact Wifi Fernandez at @email .
Kami Lynch on managing a complex election landscape
City of Appleton Municipal Clerk Kami Lynch. Photo courtesy of the City of Appleton
For Kami Lynch, being named Appleton’s City Clerk around eight years ago was the culmination of a calling going back to her days at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. “I knew I wanted to do local government back in college,” she said in a recent interview.
Like other clerks across Wisconsin, she knows all too well the challenges of the last several election cycles as a deeply divisive political environment and COVID-19 have taken their toll. None of the hurdles have dampened her passion for the profession: “It’s stressful, but so rewarding. I make a difference in what I do every day. I get to interact with so many different people from the community. I like it. There is always going to be a new challenge, so I feel that I won’t get bored,” she said with a laugh. Other clerks can likely relate.
The Fox River Valley community is around 75,000 strong with registered voters typically numbering about 40,000. They live in three different counties, and five separate school districts, meaning election workers must often properly distribute multiple ballots from 15 polling places, one for each aldermanic district.
“We’ve changed a handful of polling places, seems like a lot of places kind of get burned out with being polling places especially as a really political environment becomes more tumultuous,” Lynch said. “I think some of our polling places just want to stay out of it.” Other than that, she said, “things have gone really well.”
She credits much of the recent success to Badger Books, the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s electronic poll books.
Lynch said she rolled the Badger Books out in the February 2020 Spring Primary, a particularly stressful time due to it being days before the election and the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stages.
She could have temporarily pumped the brakes on the new technology and postponed implementation, “but I was like no, I’m sticking with this, I want to do it, I want to roll it out citywide. And we were able to do that. We got everything in,” Lynch said. There wasn’t push back, but Lynch said there was discomfort from election workers because it was a new system with new hardware equipment they hadn’t used before.
But her team adapted. “It went really well, and then the pandemic hit, and Badger Books are really what saved us for 2020,” Lynch said.
That year, 75 percent of Appleton’s poll workers decided to step away. New poll workers – many of them city employees – stepped in to make sure that April’s election happened. Lynch said preparing for the election was challenging due to the fact they couldn’t gather, and that she was thankful for WEC’s training videos to help educate.
At polling places, she said Badger Books provided a certain comfort level for the freshly-trained poll workers.
“To be able to tell them, if you forget this information, forget what ID is acceptable, the Badger Books will walk you through it,” Lynch said. “It just eases the nerves of especially new election workers, or election workers who haven’t worked in a while. The Badger Books are going to ensure they comply with the law.”
Now that Appleton’s election workers have become accustomed to the technology, Lynch said they never want to go back. “It just makes our data so much cleaner,” she said.
Post-election, Lynch said Badger Books have greatly increased her team’s timeliness in uploading voter participation information to the WEC.
“Like humans, technology is not perfect,” Lynch said, explaining some hardware components like printers can be finicky. Still, she is “extremely happy” with how technology and dedicated election workers have come together.
Find What You Need on Our Website
Election Fact Checks & FAQs
In today’s fast-paced information environment, Wisconsinites have been inundated with claims about the state’s elections system on social media and elsewhere. Many of these are not accurate. Others may provide information that is mostly accurate but lacks context. The WEC takes seriously all election-related claims that are concerning to Wisconsin voters. Wisconsin's Election Fact Checks was established as a resource to answer some of the most widely circulated claims about Wisconsin elections that generally require an in-depth explanation. For simpler questions about elections, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Upcoming Dates & Deadlines
April 7, 2023
- Deadline for municipal clerks to submit voter participation, Inspectors' Statement data, and Election Reconciliation data for the 2023 Spring Primary via WisVote
- Deadline (4:00 p.m.) for electors who voted provisionally to provide missing information to the municipal clerk 6.97(3)(b).
April 10, 2023
- Deadline (9:00 a.m.) for the Municipal Board of Canvassers to convene for the canvass of the Spring Election
April 11, 2023
- Deadline (9:00 a.m.) for the County Board of Canvassers to convene for the canvass of the Spring Election
April 14, 2023
- Last day for county clerks to deliver statements of county canvasses of the Spring Election for judicial offices to Wisconsin Elections Commission
April 25, 2023
- Clerks may clear memory devices for their voting equipment from the Spring Election if the data has been transferred to another medium to be retained for 22 months
- Webinar: WisVote 2023 Spring Post-Election
Upcoming Elections
- February 20, 2024 – Spring Primary (if necessary)
- April 2, 2024 – Spring Election & Presidential Preference Primary
- CORRECTION: August 13, 2024 – Primary Election
An earlier edition of this newsletter inaccurately listed the date of the August Primary
- November 5, 2024 – General Election
Upcoming Commission Meetings
- April 28, 2023 - April 2023 Meeting