Wisconsin’s Local Redistricting Group is pleased to announce the 2020 Local Redistricting Training Webinar Series.

The Wisconsin Local Redistricting Group consists of the Legislative Technology Services Bureau (LTSB), the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), and the Applied Population Lab (APL) at UW-Madison.  Below you will find resources and links for hands-on training, a question & answer town hall, and the pilot dress rehearsal.  These educational opportunities are intended to replace the regionally-located training workshops that were cancelled due to the Coronavirus.  This is a great opportunity to prepare for local redistricting in 2021.  There will also be another opportunity in April of 2021 after the start of local redistricting as we will conduct a second round of workshops around the state.   

Local Redistricting Training Webinars (Recordings posted below)

LTSB hosted guided live webinars on the local redistricting software “WISE-LR” via Zoom sessions throughout May of 2020.  WISE-LR is a web application developed by the LTSB specifically for the state statutes of Wisconsin and local redistricting laws in 2021.  WISE-LR will allow local officials, or their delegates, to create, analyze, and share county supervisory plans, municipal ward plans, and aldermanic plans with accurate demographic data.  All the webinars covered the entire breadth of the WISE-LR software, however, now unrestricted by physical presence, they were each geared toward a specific role in the process. 

Local Redistricting Pilot  (June 1 - July 12, 2020)

The Local Redistricting Pilot is an inter-governmental dress rehearsal of the 2021 local redistricting process in Wisconsin.  The rehearsal is on a reduced timescale in order to accommodate a busy election year for clerks; so instead of three 60-day stages, the pilot will consist of three 14-day stages. The purpose of the pilot is for participants to learn their role, the roles and participants of other related governments, and to practice using the WISE-LR software.

• Pilot Timeline:
  • June 1 - June 14, 2020:     Stage 0 & 1 – Census Block Verification and County Supervisory Districts
  • County Land Information Officers (LIO's) will begin with Stage 0 - Census Block Verification.
  • If you would like to move directly to Stage 1, simply put "CONFIRM" in the confirmation section at the bottom.
  • When Stage 0 is complete, County Clerk(s) (and/or their LIO's, or other county designee's) will create their Supervisory District Plan(s) for Stage 1. 
  • June 15 - June 28, 2020:   Stage 2 – Municipal Ward Plans
  • After a Supervisory Plan is approved in Stage 1 (no actual formal county approval required), participating Municipalities will be alerted to begin drawing their Ward Plans for Stage 2.
  • Counties should feel free to draft and approve ward plans on behalf of municipalities that are not participating in the pilot.
  • June 29 - July 12, 2020:    Stage 3 – Reconciliation of Supervisory Districts and Municipal Wards, (and possibly Aldermanic Districts - Stage A)
  • For Stage 3, both the County and Municipalities will be notified that it is time to reconcile any conflicts between approved ward and supervisory plans.
  • It is recommended that Aldermanic Districts (Stage A) are not created until after all plans are reconciled. 

(Note: The plans that are submitted will not be saved in the WISE-LR system after the pilot is complete.  Please export any plans you may want to reference for local redistricting in 2021.  The actual local redistricting process will kick-off once the Census data is delivered in 2021 and will consist of three 60-day stages.) 

Open WISE-LR Training Window  (Opened on April 30, 2020)

Every Wisconsin County Clerk, County Land Information Officer, and Municipal Clerk has been sent credentials and instructions on how to log in to the WISE-LR local redistricting software.  Users are encouraged to explore the software at their leisure through 2020 with the exception of training, pilot, and maintenance windows.  This period is purely for training purposes only. The underlying data will not be valid for use in an actual plan, and plans created in this period may be deleted at any time without prior warning.  LTSB staff will be available to answer any support questions.

If you need help using the WISE-LR application, please refer to: WISE-LR Help Documentation.

If you have questions about the software, pilot, or workshops, please contact:

GIS Team
Legislative Technology Services Bureau
GIS@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 283-1830

If you have questions about the local redistricting process, please contact:

Joseph T. Kreye
Legal Services Manager
Legislative Reference Bureau
Joseph.Kreye@legis.wisconsin.gov
(608) 504-5857