Frequently Asked Questions
1. I need to approve my county-wide ward plan. How do I do this?
If you need to approve your county-wide ward plan, please follow these simple steps:
1. Login as the Admin (use your County_Admin account and password).
2. Before approving your plan, make sure that ALL blocks are assigned in your county. Also, if a municipality in your county does not have to be split, please assign it to “Ward 1” (this part would need to first be done when signed in as County_User).
3. Click on the “Tools” tab.
4. Scroll down to the “Approve Plan” section.
5. Enter your name, e-mail and ordinance or resolution number in the spaces provided (if you don’t have an ordinance or resolution number, any number will work).
6. Hit the “Approve Plan” button. This sends the Legislative GIS team an email that your county has been approved.
2. Why did the colors change in my plan?
Your colors changed in order to remove duplicates under your administrative log-in. This did NOT affect your assignments. If you want your original colors back, you simply need to unapprove, then reapprove your plan. For more information, please email wiselr.support@legis.wisconsin.gov.
3. Due to the newly passed legislation, I will need to correct some wards to follow the legislative and/or congressional district lines. How do I do this?
Municipal wards divided by the new legislative districts (Act 43) must be subdivided along the legislative border. The divided ward (ie. Ward T 1) will need to be divided into parts A and B (ie. Ward T 1 A and Ward T 1 B). Please follow the procedure below to subdivide only submitted wards that were divided by the legislative borders.
1. Open the submitted ward plan in WISE-LR.
2. Under the Editing tab, select the municipality of the submitted ward plan, then select the ward number that is divided under “District Number”.
3. Under the Editing tab, select “A” under “District Split”.
4. From the matrix at the bottom of the WISE-LR, click Assign to District under the ward number that is to be subdivided. For example, if Ward T 1 is to be subdivided, the District Number under the Editing tab should be “1”, and the District Split should be “A”. When you click Assign to District next to Ward T 1 in the matrix, the entire ward should be assigned to Ward T 1 A.
5. Now that the entire district is in Ward # A, the second part of the ward will need to be manually divided out. Under the Editing tab, the District Number will stay the same, but the District Split letter should be set to “B”.
6. Use the Assign tool (Pencil with Green Plus sign at top of screen), to assign blocks within the original ward that are all on one side of the legislative boundary (shown in green in WISE-LR). When this is complete the original ward should not be any different other than now being in two parts, Ward # A and Ward # B, divided along the legislative boundary.
4. How is the Local Redistricting affected by the newly passed Legislation in August of 2011?
Please refer to the newly published article by the Legislative Reference Bureau (http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb/pubs/Lb/11Lb1.pdf) for guidance on how local redistricting is affected by the recently passed legislation.
5. I was told I need to approve my ward/supervisory plan in WISE-LR. How do I do this?
Plans can easily be approved in WISE-LR! Simply log into your city, town and or village's plan, and select your Municipality from the dropdown under the "Editing Information" tab. Next, go into the "Tools" tab, and halfway down you will see an Approve Plan section. Simply enter in your name, email, and ordinance number (if you don't have an ordinance number, any number can be typed in). Then hit "Approve Plan". *** County-wide ward plans are also approved in the same manner, however this would be done under the Administrator log-in.
6. Why do I have such an unusual and long password?
We wanted to give each county in Wisconsin a secure and UNIQUE password that related to Wisconsin history - past, present and future. No county has the same password.
7. How am I able to print from WISE-LR?
There are a few ways to print from WISE-LR. You can use ESRI's free tool, ArcExplorer to bring your shapefiles in, view them, and print them off. You will need to install Arc Explorer. Another way would be to use the "Snipping Tool" (Vista or Windows 7 has this tool). You can find this tool in your "Accessories" folder on your computer. Simply trace around the map and create your image and save to your computer. Lastly, you can use the old method of "ALT + Print Screen" and paste your image into a Word document or Power Point.
8. Why do the municipal lines in the WISE-LR application not match up with our current municipal boundaries?
Several years ago, the Census Bureau went through a process of modernizing the TIGER database (geography). Through this process they increased the spatial accuracy of their data to approximately 7.6 meters (that is the good news). Unfortunately, when the data was moved to their new system some of the municipal boundaries became skewed (that is the bad news). The Census Bureau has been working to fix these problems before the release of the 2010 TIGER shapefiles. Even with the corrections the Census Bureau is making to their data, there is a good chance more accurate datasets may not line up properly.
9. What are the system requirements for the WISE-LR application?
Internet Explorer 7 or higher (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx).
Firefox 3.x (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ie.html)
A broadband internet connection (the faster the better).
10. I have requested a shapefile, however, I haven't received anything yet in my inbox?
Make sure to check your email Spam filter (box). We've noticed that sometimes the shapefiles end up getting caught in the Spam filters on certain accounts.
11. My supervisory/ward plan is complete and I would like to have some sort of map output of it. What are my choices?
ESRI offers a FREE Viewer (ArcGIS Explorer) that you can download right off their website. While you won't be able to do much editing (after all, it is free!), you can print your map from this software. You can also make a presentation right from this software. To download the ArcGIS Explorer software, click here.
12. What is the difference between the "Admin" and "User" account?
The Admin account is able to make annexations and approve/unapprove plans. The User account is able to create the supervisory districts and wards. They can also approve their plan when it's completed, which then lets the Admin know that a plan is completed.
13. How do I unassign a block in my plan?
To unassign a block, select "Unassign" from the drop-down menu as the district, instead of a number. Use the "Assign Tool" to "Unassign" the block. The "Undo Last" button will also work for the last assignment that you made on the map.
14. How can I create a block assignment file for my completed plan?
Open your completed plan, click on the "Tools" tab on the right-hand side of the screen. Then click on "Create CSV". Once the dialog window opens, click on "Open" and you will see a file open in Microsoft Excel which has two fields: "stfid" and "jvtd2". In the "Stfid" column, click once on the letter "A" in the column title. (You should see the whole column become selected with a bold outline around it). Then right-click on the "A", select "Format Field", and on the left side, select "Number". Change the decimal places to "0" instead of "2". Click "OK" and you should then see that the "stfid" column now has 15 digits. Save the file somewhere to your computer. NOTE: The "STFID" column is the Block Number.
15. My municipality is split between 2 counties. How should I proceed with creating wards?
If your city, town or village is split between two counties, it is very important to make sure you are creating your wards using the population threshold associated with the whole population of your city, town or village. Please refer to page 4 of the "Guidelines for Adjusting Municipal Wards Following the 2010 Federal Census" booklet.