Wisconsin Administrative Code › Elections Commission › Chapter EL 2 - Election Related Petitions › Section EL 2.05 - Treatment and sufficiency of nomination papers

Current through June 24, 2024
(1) Each candidate
			 for public office has the responsibility to assure that his or her nomination
			 papers are prepared, circulated, signed, and filed in compliance with statutory
			 and other legal requirements.
(2)
			 In order to be timely filed, all nomination papers shall be in the physical
			 possession of the filing officer by the statutory deadline. Each of the
			 nomination papers shall be numbered, before they are filed, and the numbers
			 shall be assigned sequentially, beginning with the number "1". Notwithstanding
			 any other provision of this chapter, the absence of a page number will not
			 invalidate the signatures on that page.
(3) The filing officer shall review all
			 nomination papers filed with it, up to the maximum number permitted, to
			 determine the facial sufficiency of the papers filed. Where circumstances and
			 the time for review permit, the filing officer may consult maps, directories
			 and other extrinsic evidence to ascertain the correctness and sufficiency of
			 information on a nomination paper.
(4) Any information which appears on a
			 nomination paper is entitled to a presumption of validity. Notwithstanding any
			 other provision of this chapter, errors in information contained in a
			 nomination paper, committed by either a signer or a circulator, may be
			 corrected by an affidavit of the circulator, an affidavit of the candidate, or
			 an affidavit of a person who signed the nomination paper. The person giving the
			 correcting affidavit shall have personal knowledge of the correct information
			 and the correcting affidavit shall be filed with the filing officer not later
			 than three calendar days after the applicable statutory due date for the
			 nomination papers.
(5) Where any
			 required item of information on a nomination paper is incomplete, the filing
			 officer shall accept the information as complete if there has been substantial
			 compliance with the law.
(6)
			 Nomination papers shall contain at least the minimum required number of
			 signatures from the circuit, county, district or jurisdiction which the
			 candidate seeks to represent.
(7)
			 The filing officer shall accept nomination papers which contain biographical
			 data or campaign advertising. The disclaimer specified in s.
			 11.1303(2),
			 Stats., is not required on any nomination paper.
(8) An elector shall sign his or her own name
			 unless unable to do so because of physical disability. An elector unable to
			 sign because of physical disability shall be present when another person signs
			 on behalf of the disabled elector and shall specifically authorize the
			 signing.
(9) A person may not sign
			 for his or her spouse, or for any other person, even when they have been given
			 a power of attorney by that person, unless sub. (8) applies.
(10) The signature of a married woman shall
			 be counted when she uses her husband's first name instead of her own.
(11) Only one signature per person for the
			 same office is valid. Where an elector is entitled to vote for more than one
			 candidate for the same office, a person may sign the nomination papers of as
			 many candidates for the same office as the person is entitled to vote for at
			 the election.
(12) A complete
			 address, including municipality of residence for voting purposes, and the
			 street and number, if any, of the residence, (or a postal address if it is
			 located in the jurisdiction that the candidate seeks to represent), shall be
			 listed for each signature on a nomination paper.
(13) A signature shall be counted when
			 identical residential information or dates for different electors are indicated
			 by ditto marks.
(14) No signature
			 on a nomination paper shall be counted unless the elector who circulated the
			 nomination paper completes and signs the certificate of circulator and does so
			 after, not before, the paper is circulated. No signature may be counted when
			 the residency of the circulator cannot be determined by the information given
			 on the nomination paper.
(15) An
			 individual signature on a nomination paper may not be counted when any of the
			 following occur:
(a) The date of the signature
			 is missing, unless the date can be determined by reference to the dates of
			 other signatures on the paper.
(b)
			 The signature is dated after the date of certification contained in the
			 certificate of circulator.
(c) The
			 address of the signer is missing or incomplete, unless residency can be
			 determined by the information provided on the nomination paper.
(d) The signature is that of an individual
			 who is not 18 years of age at the time the paper is signed. An individual who
			 will not be 18 years of age until the subject election is not eligible to sign
			 a nomination paper for that election.
(e) The signature is that of an individual
			 who has been adjudicated not to be a qualified elector on the grounds of
			 incompetency or limited competency as provided in s.
			 6.03(3),
			 Stats., or is that of an individual who was not, for any other reason, a
			 qualified elector at the time of signing the nomination paper.