The virus makes its own rules.
Unfortunately, when it comes to Wisconsin elections, state officials aren't taking that into account. They insisted on having in-person voting on April 7. Now they are insisting that anyone wanting to run for office in this fall's elections has to comply with traditional nomination requirements. Despite the stay-at-home orders and the need for social distancing, the number of signatures by eligible voters on nomination forms needed to qualify for the ballot is unchanged and the state is not allowing digital forms or electronic signatures.
Under these conditions, if the task of gathering nomination signatures is left entirely to those seeking to run, and they have to gather those signatures without approaching voters, there will inevitably be a significant number of candidates who fall short of the number of signatures required to be included on the ballot and voters will have fewer choices in key elections.
Here at Our Wisconsin Revolution, we decided there needs to be a way for the public to get involved as never before in helping candidates get on the ballot. We all need to pitch in to make sure democracy survives COVID-19.
We've created a way for eligible voters in a household to follow the state’s inflexible rules and sign nomination forms for candidates in their area while still practicing social distancing and honoring Wisconsin’s Safer at Home order.
We've developed a one-stop solution for signing nomination papers safely at home, in the form of an online tool allowing the public to easily find candidates’ nomination forms and sign for them without leaving home.
Here's all you have to do:
1. Go to nominationpapers.ourwisconsinrev.com.
2. Enter your street address and zip code, and the system automatically generates pre-filled nomination papers for candidates in your area. You can either download the nomination forms for candidates you support directly from the site, or you can choose to have the forms emailed to you.
3. Print and sign the papers, and then mail them to the address on each candidate's nomination form.
Keep in mind that that each eligible voter in a household can sign for only one candidate for each office. For the nominations to be valid, each nomination petition also needs to be signed by a circulator certifying it. The person signing as the circulator also can be one of the signers of the petition. The forms generated by the online system are in a format approved by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
One more thing.... share the link to nominationpapers.ourwisconsinrev.com with neighbors, friends and contacts in your community and throughout the state and urge them to participate in the nomination process. Or you can share the custom link to a particular candidate you want to help get on the ballot. To make it easy, just forward this message along to your contacts.
The deadline for candidates to submit nomination signatures to the Wisconsin Elections Commission is June 1, so it's important that you get your signed and certified forms mailed back to candidates as far in advance of that date as possible. Wisconsin’s fall general election is November 3. The primary election is August 11.
Our Wisconsin Revolution is a member-driven organization and our work is not possible without the help of our members. Become an Our Wisconsin Revolution Sustaining Member! Donate a minimum of $5/month or $50/year. And please consider making a larger contribution to sustain the organization's important work!.
