To fill out and circulate Wisconsin nomination papers for spring 2027, use WEC form EL-169, complete the header with your name, street address, the April 6, 2027 spring election and your office before anyone signs, and collect signatures from eligible voters who live in your district from December 1, 2026 onward. Each circulator (the person who collects the signatures) completes and dates the certification at the bottom of every page. You number the pages and deliver the originals, with your Declaration of Candidacy and campaign registration statement, to your filing officer by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2027.
The steps below follow the order in which the work happens. Every rule comes from Wisconsin statute 8.10 and the state's administrative code (EL 2.05). Most candidates who lose a place on the ballot do so because of a small number of avoidable mistakes, and this guide points them out as you go.
For the full process, from registering your campaign to Election Day, see our guide to running for local office in Wisconsin.
Step 1: Confirm that your office uses nomination papers
Not every spring candidate circulates papers. City and county supervisor candidates do. Villages use papers only if the village board decided to by December 1 or a primary is provided under state law, and towns use papers only if their voters adopted a nonpartisan primary; otherwise those offices are filled through a caucus. Many school board candidates file only a Declaration of Candidacy. Ask your filing officer (the municipal clerk, county clerk or school district clerk) whether your office uses papers and what your signature range is. Our explainer on how many signatures you need on Wisconsin nomination papers lists every range.
Step 2: Register your campaign
Before you raise or spend money, file your campaign registration statement (form CF-1) with your filing officer. Wisconsin's registration threshold is $0, and your name cannot appear on the ballot without a registration statement. The cost of producing nomination papers is one of the few expenses allowed before you have a registered committee, so printing papers early does not cause a problem, but register as soon as you are a candidate.
Step 3: Fill out the header before anyone signs
The header is the top of the form, and it must be complete and correct on every page before the first signature. The statutory text reads:
I, the undersigned, request that the name of (candidate) residing at (street address) be placed on the ballot at the (spring or special) election to be held on (date) as a candidate so that voters will have the opportunity to vote for (him or her) for the office of (office). I am eligible to vote in the (jurisdiction or district). I have not signed the nomination paper of any other candidate for the same office at this election.
Fill in:
- Your name as you want it to appear.
- Your residential street address.
- The election: the spring election to be held on April 6, 2027.
- The office, including the district, seat or area where one applies. School board candidates on a three-member board or a board with numbered or apportioned seats must state the seat or area.
- The jurisdiction or district in which signers are eligible to vote.
- Your mailing address, which must also appear on the papers.
A missing election date voids the whole page. Header mistakes cannot be fixed by affidavit after circulation, so complete one page, check it against the form and with your clerk if you can, and then prepare every other page the same way. For the exact layout of the sheet, refer to the EL-169 form itself.
Step 4: Recruit your circulators
A circulator may be any Wisconsin voter, or any U.S. citizen age 18 or older who would not be disqualified from voting if they lived in Wisconsin. Circulators do not have to live in Wisconsin or in your district, and you may circulate your own papers.
Two points to explain to every volunteer:
- One candidate per office. If a person circulates papers for two candidates for the same office, only the earlier paper is valid.
- They must personally collect every signature on their page, and certify that they did.
Step 5: Collect signatures correctly
Begin on or after Tuesday, December 1, 2026. Signatures dated earlier are not counted. Each signer must:
- live in the district you would represent;
- be an eligible voter and at least 18 on the date of signing;
- sign their own name, and legibly print it;
- write their municipality of residence for voting purposes and their street and number; and
- write the date of signing.
An apartment number, state and ZIP code are not required. Ditto marks or "same" are acceptable for a repeated address or date. A signer cannot sign for a spouse or anyone else, even with a power of attorney. The only exception is a physically disabled signer who is present and authorizes another person to sign for them.
Ask each person whether they have already signed for another candidate for the same office. In a single-seat race, if someone signs for two candidates, only the earlier signature counts. In a multi-seat race, a voter may sign for as many candidates as there are seats they can vote for.
Check each line before you leave the door. Signatures are not counted if the date is missing and cannot be worked out from the lines around it, if the address is incomplete, if the filing officer cannot read a first and last name from the signature and printed name together, or if the signer used a nickname or an initial for the last name.
Step 6: Complete the circulator's certification
At the bottom of every page, the circulator certifies, among other things:
- their residence, with street and number;
- that they personally circulated the paper and obtained each signature;
- that they know the signers are voters of the district, and know their residences and the dates they signed;
- that the signers signed with full knowledge of the contents;
- that they intend to support the candidate; and
- that they are aware that falsifying the certification is punishable under state law.
The circulator then dates the certification. Two rules make this step important. Signatures dated after the certification date do not count, so the circulator should sign only when the page is finished. And if the circulator's address cannot be determined, or the certification date is incomplete or wrong, no signature on that page counts.
Step 7: Review every page before filing
Set aside an evening in late December to review your papers. For each page, check:
- the header is complete, including the April 6, 2027 election date and the office;
- your mailing address appears;
- every signer lives in the district and gave a street address and municipality;
- every line has a date on or after December 1, 2026, and no later than the circulator's certification date;
- the circulator's certification is complete, with a street address, signature and date.
Then count only the lines you are confident are valid, and compare the total with your minimum. Collect more if you are close; once papers are filed, signatures cannot be added or removed.
Step 8: Number the pages and file the originals
Number your pages in order starting from 1. A numbering mistake does not invalidate the papers, but the filing officer expects them numbered. By 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2027, deliver to your filing officer:
- the original nomination papers, since photocopies, faxes and emails are not accepted and the papers must be in the filing officer's physical possession by the deadline;
- your Declaration of Candidacy (EL-162, or EL-162sd for school board), sworn before an officer authorized to administer oaths; and
- your campaign registration statement, if you have not already filed it.
Do not plan to file on the afternoon of January 5. Deliver early enough to fix a missing form.
Step 9: Watch for a challenge
Based on state law, challenges to nomination papers are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, January 8, 2027. If you are challenged, your response is due by 5 p.m. on the third calendar day after the challenge is filed. Correcting affidavits from you, a circulator or a signer may fix some errors, but not header defects, and they cannot add signatures. If a challenge to a page's header or circulation is upheld, every signature on that page is struck. Call an election attorney if you are challenged. The Wisconsin spring 2027 election calendar lists the related deadlines.
Step in the process: plan your routes and your supporter list
Circulation is your first round of door knocking, so organize it the same way:
- Route your circulators. In Beacon, import your voter list from a CSV file, divide the district into territories, and assign each territory to a circulator. Beacon shows each walk list on a map in route order, works offline, and records which doors were visited and the result. Add a survey question such as "Signed: yes or no" so you can see where you still need signatures.
- Collect opt-ins separately. A signature on nomination papers is not permission to text. Carry a separate supporter sheet that says plainly the person agrees to receive campaign texts, with a line for the date.
- Enter supporters into CampaignCNX+ each week. Add them to a supporter group, because messages are sent to groups, and use custom fields for the date and source of each person's permission.
- Request Campaign Verify once your registration is online. Campaign Verify ($95 per two-year cycle) needs an EIN (the committee's federal tax ID number) and a filing published online by an election authority. Wisconsin local candidates file their registration on paper with the local filing officer, so confirm your registration can be viewed online before you request verification, and ask Campaign Verify Support if it cannot. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration with the carriers (the mobile phone companies) and guides you through the request. Campaign Verify decides eligibility.
Your CampaignCNX+ account includes 100 free SMS, and your number is $5 a month, with nothing sent until you buy it. For texting rules in general, see our political texting guide.
Finish circulation with a supporter list as well as a ballot spot
The weeks between December 1 and January 5 give you a reason to meet hundreds of neighbors. File papers that survive review, and keep a dated list of the people who want to hear from you again. When you are ready, start your CampaignCNX+ account.