How to run for local office in Wisconsin: the spring 2027 guide

The short answer

To run for local office in Wisconsin in spring 2027, you register your campaign with your filing officer, collect signatures on nomination papers beginning December 1, 2026, and file those papers, your Declaration of Candidacy (form EL-162) and your campaign registration statement (form CF-1) with the right filing officer by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2027. If your papers survive any challenge, your name goes on the ballot for the spring election on Tuesday, April 6, 2027. A spring primary is held on Tuesday, February 16, 2027, but only in races where state law or a local decision triggers one.

Not every local office uses nomination papers. Many school board candidates file only a declaration, and many towns and villages nominate their candidates at a caucus (a meeting of local voters) instead. This guide covers city, village, town, county supervisor, school board and municipal judge races, from the first signature to Election Day. Every rule here comes from the Wisconsin statutes and administrative code, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) 2027 ballot access checklists, and the Wisconsin Ethics Commission. Some dates below are calculated from state law rather than published by WEC, and we mark those. Confirm anything specific to your office with your filing officer or an election attorney.

If you plan to reach voters by text once you are on the ballot, our political texting guide covers the rules and the setup in full.

The key dates at a glance.

If you are an incumbent stepping down, ask your filing officer how to deliver the noncandidacy notice. For every date in the cycle, including absentee voting and campaign finance reports, see our Wisconsin spring 2027 election calendar.

Step 1

Identify your office, how it nominates, and your filing officer.

Your filing officer is the official who receives your paperwork and decides any challenge to it. The filing officer, and whether you use nomination papers at all, depends on the office.

A few points save first-time candidates from common mix-ups:

• Spring races are nonpartisan. No party designation appears on spring ballots.
• Technical college board seats are not on the ballot. District board members are appointed by an appointment committee.
• Caucus nominees still file paperwork. At a caucus, the two top vote-getters for each office are nominated (twice the number of seats for unnumbered town supervisor seats and village trustees). Nominees then file the Declaration of Candidacy and the campaign registration statement by 5 p.m. on the fifth day after they are notified.

When you sign the Declaration of Candidacy, you state that you meet the age, citizenship, residency and voting qualifications for the office, and that you have not been convicted of an unpardoned felony or of a misdemeanor designated a violation of the public trust. If you are unsure whether you qualify, ask your filing officer before you start.

We have guides for each type of office: school board, alderperson or city council, village board or village president, and town board, by caucus or nomination papers.

Step 2

Register your campaign first.

Wisconsin requires every local candidate to file a campaign registration statement, and the money threshold is $0. You become a "candidate" under state law when you file nomination papers, are nominated at a caucus, receive a contribution or spend money to seek office, or already hold the office. You must register as soon as practicable after that, and your name cannot appear on the ballot without a registration statement for that election.

The practical rule is to register before you raise or spend money. WEC tells candidates to file the CF-1 "prior to collecting or spending any money on the campaign." Two more points matter for local candidates:

• Where to file. Through November 30, 2027, local candidates file on paper with their local filing officer, the same official who receives their nomination papers. A change that moves this filing to the Ethics Commission takes effect December 1, 2027, after this cycle.
• The $2,500 exemption. If your committee does not expect contributions, payments and obligations to total more than $2,500 in a calendar year, you can claim an exemption from filing campaign finance reports on your registration statement. You still must register, and you still must keep records of every contribution and expense. Your own money and loans count toward the $2,500.

Our explainer on campaign registration for Wisconsin local candidates covers the forms, the exemption and the reports in detail.

Step 3

Know your signature number.

If your office uses nomination papers, state law sets a minimum and a maximum number of signatures. These ranges come from Wis. Stat. 8.10(3) and the WEC 2027 checklists.

Your city's class depends on its population, and your city clerk can tell you which class applies. School board numbers depend on the district, and in many districts no papers are required; our guide to how many signatures you need on Wisconsin nomination papers covers school boards and the other cases in full. If you are running for municipal judge in a single municipality, ask your clerk for the number.

Collect more than the minimum. Signatures can be struck during review or a challenge, and once your papers are filed you cannot add any.

Step 4

Circulate your nomination papers correctly.

Nomination papers use WEC form EL-169, the Nomination Paper for Nonpartisan Office. A small number of mistakes cause most lost signatures.

Get the header right before anyone signs. The header names you, your street address, the election (the spring election on April 6, 2027), and the office. Your mailing address must also appear. A missing election date in the header voids the whole page, and header mistakes cannot be fixed by affidavit after circulation.

Know who can circulate. A circulator (the person who collects the signatures) 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, and you may circulate your own papers. Each circulator completes and dates the certification at the bottom of each paper, and signatures dated after that date do not count.

Know who can sign. Signers must live in the district you would represent and be eligible voters age 18 or older on the date they sign. Each signer signs their own name, legibly prints it, and writes their municipality, street and number, and the date. In a single-seat race, if someone signs for two candidates, only the earlier signature counts.

Before filing, number your pages in order starting from 1. For a line-by-line walkthrough of the form, see filling out and circulating Wisconsin nomination papers.

Step 5

File everything by 5 p.m. on January 5.

By 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5, 2027, your filing officer must have:

1. Your nomination papers, if your office uses them. Originals only; photocopies, faxes and emails are not accepted, and the papers must be in the filing officer's physical possession by the deadline.
2. Your Declaration of Candidacy (EL-162), sworn before an officer authorized to administer oaths, such as a notary. School board candidates use form EL-162sd.
3. Your campaign registration statement (CF-1), unless you already filed it.

If you fax or email the CF-1 or the EL-162, you must follow it with the original, postmarked by January 5. Once your papers are filed, signatures cannot be added or removed. A school board candidate's declaration or papers cannot be withdrawn after filing.

If an incumbent does not run. An incumbent who is not running again files the Notification of Noncandidacy by 5 p.m. on Friday, December 25, 2026. If an incumbent neither files for reelection nor gives that notice, other candidates for that office get 72 more hours, which runs to 5 p.m. on Friday, January 8, 2027, based on state law. In either case the filing officer must post public notice on its website or in three public places. If you are considering an open seat, watch for that notice.

Municipal judge candidates also file a Statement of Economic Interests with the Ethics Commission by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, January 8, 2027.

Step 6

Be ready for a challenge.

Any person may challenge your nomination papers by filing a verified (sworn, based on personal knowledge) challenge with your filing officer. Based on state law, challenges are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, January 8, 2027, the third calendar day after the filing deadline.

Here is how a challenge works:

• Your response is due by 5 p.m. on the third calendar day after the challenge is filed. The challenger may then reply within 24 hours.
• The standard is clear, satisfactory and convincing evidence. The challenger carries the burden first; if the challenger meets it, the burden moves to you.
• Whole pages can fall. If a challenge to a page's header or to how the page was circulated is upheld, every signature on that page is struck.
• Corrections are limited. A correcting affidavit can fix some errors, but not header defects, and cannot add signatures.
• The decision comes from your filing officer. You may appeal a local filing officer's order to WEC within 48 hours of the signed order, and then to circuit court.

If you are challenged, call an election attorney right away. The deadlines are counted in days, not weeks.

Step 7

Find out whether your race will have a February 16 primary.

Many candidates assume a primary is held whenever more than twice as many candidates file as there are seats. In Wisconsin that is not a single rule. It depends on the office:

• City offices: a primary is held only if the council votes for one within 3 days after the filing deadline, a charter ordinance requires one when 3 or more candidates file, or a petition signed by 10 percent of the city's vote for governor is filed within 3 days after the deadline. Even then, there is no primary unless the candidates exceed twice the number of seats.
• Villages: a primary is held only if the village board provides one within 3 days after the deadline, a charter ordinance requires one, or a 10 percent petition was filed by December 1, and only if the candidates exceed twice the number of seats.
• Towns and villages using a nonpartisan primary: a primary is held when the candidates exceed twice the number of seats.
• County supervisor: a primary is held whenever 3 or more candidates file. In Milwaukee County, it is held when the candidates exceed twice the number of seats.
• School boards: a primary is held when more than 2 candidates file for a seat on a three-member board or for a numbered seat, or when the candidates exceed twice the seats on an unnumbered board of more than three members or in an apportioned area. In Milwaukee, a primary is held when more than 2 candidates run at large or in any district.
• Municipal judge serving several municipalities: a primary is held if more than 2 candidates file.

Only the primary winners appear on the April ballot. Your filing officer will know within a few days of the filing deadline whether your race has a primary. If you are running in the City of Milwaukee, confirm the rules for your office with the Milwaukee Election Commission.

Step 8

Ballot order and write-in candidates.

Ballot order for city, village, town, county and school board offices is set by drawing lots, using the method in state law. For school boards without a primary, the drawing takes place by Tuesday, January 12, 2027, based on state law.

If a candidate is certified to appear on the ballot, write-in votes count only for a write-in candidate who files a campaign registration statement by noon on the Friday before the election. Based on state law, that is noon on Friday, April 2, 2027 for the spring election, and noon on Friday, February 12, 2027 for the primary. If no candidate is certified for an office, all write-in votes count.

Step 9

Run the campaign.

Once you are on the ballot, the work changes from paperwork to meeting voters. Our campaign plan to April 6, 2027 for Wisconsin local races sets out the work week by week.

Knock on doors

Door knocking is one of the most direct ways a local candidate can meet voters, and it starts during circulation, when you or your circulators are already walking the district. Start with a walk list (a list of registered voters in your district, organized by address), focus on people most likely to vote in a spring election, and record what happened at every door so you can return to the voters who were undecided.

Beacon, our canvassing app, imports your voter list from a CSV file, puts walk lists on a map, suggests routes and works offline. You can assign territories to specific volunteers, and every plan includes unlimited canvassers. During circulation, a survey question can record whether each person signed. Beacon's political canvassing guide covers door strategy in depth.

Text the people who asked to hear from you

A signature on your nomination papers is not permission to text someone. Ask for that permission separately, in writing, with the date recorded. Set up your texting in this order:

1. Confirm your registration is online before you request Campaign Verify. Campaign Verify is the nonprofit check, required for political texting, that confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that you are a real campaign. It costs $95 per two-year cycle and 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, and whether that filing appears online varies by clerk. Check that your registration can be viewed online before you request verification. If it cannot, ask Campaign Verify Support how to proceed. Campaign Verify decides eligibility. Requests made on or after November 15, 2026 last until January 31, 2029.
2. Open your account and let CampaignCNX+ handle carrier registration. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration for you, either 10DLC (the carrier registration for texting from a local-style number) or toll-free, and guides you through Campaign Verify. Your account includes 100 free SMS. Your number is $5 a month, and nothing sends until you buy it.
3. Add only opted-in contacts. Put supporters who gave written permission into a group, because messages are sent to groups. Use custom fields to record the date and source of each person's permission.
4. Write short messages. Keep each text under 160 characters, name the campaign, and include "Reply STOP to opt out" on the first message. STOP replies are handled automatically.
5. Schedule within sending hours. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., and quiet-hours scheduling keeps them in that window.
6. Answer replies as a team. Replies arrive in a shared two-way inbox. You can add volunteers as team members with admin, manager or staffer roles.

Standard texts cost $0.035 to $0.06 each, depending on your plan, and pay as you go ($0.06 per SMS) costs less than a monthly plan below about 900 messages a month. For worked examples, see what it costs to text a local race, and for the full Wisconsin walkthrough, texting voters in a Wisconsin local race. Our explainer on Campaign Verify for local candidates covers the verification process itself.

Plan for absentee voting

Based on state law, in-person absentee voting for April 6 may run from Tuesday, March 23 through Sunday, April 4, 2027, but each municipality sets its own hours and many clerks offer fewer days. By-mail absentee requests must be received by 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, 2027. Voters need a photo ID to vote absentee in person. These dates are calculated from the statute, so confirm them with your municipal clerk, and send voters to the clerk for locations and hours.

If you are facing, or considering, a recall.

City, village, town and school district officials in Wisconsin can be recalled under state statute. A recall petition needs signatures equal to at least 25 percent of the vote for governor at the last election in the official's district, cannot be filed until one year after the official's term begins, and must be filed within 60 days after the recall committee registers. Our explainer on how recall works for local officials in Wisconsin covers the full process.