As you may know, we are in the process of retooling SVRS to use maps and GIS functionality instead of address ranges to manage districts in Wisconsin.  As part of this process, we are importing maps into SVRS for the districts in your county.  Many counties already have map layers for electoral districts in their County GIS systems.  We would like to work with the appropriate person in your county to determine which map layers may be available to assist us in this process.  To that end, we are requesting two things from you:

1. Please provide a name, phone number, and e-mail address for a contact person in your county who we may work with to request map layers from your County GIS System.  Please contact the G.A.B. Help Desk at (608) 261-2028 or gabhelpdesk@wi.gov with this information.
2. If you have special districts in your county that have elections in conjunction with scheduled elections, such as sanitary districts, lake districts, or others, please provide us with the name of the district.  We do not need districts that have private elections.  We only want those that have public elections, either for office positions, or for referenda.

Please provide this information as soon as practical, but no later than by Friday, September 23, 2011, as this will help improve the data in SVRS, and will save clerks time in making corrections after the districts are imported. 

If you have questions, please contact the G.A.B. Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov or (608) 261-2028. Thank you.

cc:    Kevin J. Kennedy

        Director and General Counsel

        Government Accountability Board

        Ross D. Hein

        Elections Supervisor

        Government Accountability Board

As you may know, starting in 2012, districts in SVRS will be managed using maps instead of address ranges.  Clerks will no longer be required to update address ranges in SVRS.  The G.A.B. technical team is pulling all of the new districts created by Redistricting into SVRS.  Clerks should not update their address ranges with the new districts.  Once the new maps have been loaded into SVRS, clerks will use the maps to manage their district boundaries instead of address ranges.

Many clerks have asked questions about these new features and how they will work in SVRS.  G.A.B. staff are very excited to announce that we have prepared a demonstration video for clerks to help explain these new changes.  Please click on the following link to view the video:

http://gab.wi.gov/clerks/redistricting

We hope this video is a helpful tool to help clerks visualize and understand the new changes to SVRS.  G.A.B. staff will continue to use videos such as this as a way to communicate information to clerks.

If you have questions on the video, or on the Redistricting project, please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov, or (608) 261-2028.  Thank you.

cc:    Kevin J. Kennedy
    Director and General Counsel
    Government Accountability Board

    Ross D. Hein
    Elections Supervisor
    Government Accountability Board

    Sarah Whitt
    SVRS Functional Team Lead
    Government Accountability Board   
 

The G.A.B. technical team is working hard preparing to implement the new legislative districts in SVRS on December 1.  As clerks know, we are importing the new wards, aldermanic, county supervisory, State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional districts from WISE-LR, the tool that the Legislature used to facilitate Redistricting, into SVRS.  The districts in WISE-LR are based on census data and use census blocks as the building blocks for districts. 

Census Data Accuracy

Some geographic information specialists and clerks have contacted G.A.B. with questions regarding anomalies between census data and the actual municipal boundaries and geography.  According to the Census Bureau, the Census geographic data is accurate to approximately 50 meters.  50 meters can be enough for a house to potentially appear in the wrong district, so to address this, G.A.B. is allowing counties to provide us with wards from their county GIS systems that have been adjusted to reflect actual physical municipal boundaries and geography. 

Using County GIS Data

The data from the county GIS systems tends to be highly accurate, and in some cases at a survey level of accuracy.  So far, approximately 15 counties have provided us with adjusted wards.  For those counties, we will use the adjusted wards instead of the census-based wards we receive from WISE-LR.  Using the adjusted wards also ensures that all other districts that are built upon those wards (aldermanic, county supervisory, State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional) will also follow the correct municipal boundaries.  We will continue to implement corrected wards as counties are able to provide them to us.  If we get corrected wards from a county after December 1, we will work with the impacted clerks so you know if your boundary lines will be changing.

Correcting Exceptions

For counties that were not able to provide us with adjusted wards from their county GIS systems, clerks may see some discrepancies with municipal boundaries in SVRS on December 1 when the new districts become available.  G.A.B. is creating a special exception report specifically to identify any registered voters who appear in the incorrect municipality after we implement the new district maps.  Clerks will be given instructions and training on how to correct any registered voters who are inadvertently placed in the wrong municipality.  Future guidance will also provide instructions as to any new voter registration issues that may arise.

Fixing Boundary Lines

Starting after the Spring 2012 elections, in Phase II of the changes to SVRS, as part of the G.A.B. Redistricting Initiative, SVRS will have a boundary management tool that will allow clerks to correct inaccuracies in their boundary lines.  For counties that were not able to provide corrections from their GIS system, they will be able to make those corrections in SVRS using the district management tool. If your county did provide us with corrected wards from your county GIS system, then corrections can continue to be made in the County system, and then imported into SVRS from the County system.

If you have questions on the Redistricting project, please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov, or (608) 261-2028.  Thank you.

cc:    Kevin J. Kennedy
    Director and General Counsel
    Government Accountability Board

    Ross D. Hein
    Elections Supervisor
    Government Accountability Board

    Sarah Whitt
    SVRS Functional Team Lead
    Government Accountability Board   

    Shane Falk
    Staff Counsel
    Government Accountability Board   
 

Introduction

It is critical to have the most accurate municipal and voting district boundary lines possible in SVRS, in order to assure voters are assigned to correct districts, avoid voter and election official confusion, and to have a manageable workflow for clerks during this redistricting process. Through the conversations we have had with local election officials, as well as state and local geographic information specialists, municipal and ward boundaries anomalies have been brought to our attention that directly impact the G.A.B. Redistricting Initiative. This Memorandum identifies these anomalies, provides some examples and a detailed analysis, and provides guidance to help reduce the consequential impact of the anomalies. If you discover that your jurisdiction is affected by these anomalies and you have not already contacted the G.A.B., please be sure to immediately raise it to the attention of Elections Supervisor, Ross Hein.

In preparation to implement the voting districts established after the 2010 Federal Decennial Census in SVRS for the December 1, 2012 release, some geographic information specialists and clerks had contacted the G.A.B. with questions regarding municipal and ward boundaries anomalies resulting from differences between Census data and actual municipal and ward boundaries. On November 18, 2011 and in light of these known anomalies, the G.A.B. provided all clerks with “Redistricting Update #5: Municipal and Ward Boundaries,” which addressed these issues.

Approximately 20 counties have now taken advantage of the G.A.B.’s direction and coordinated the loading of their more accurate municipal and ward boundaries from their county GIS systems into SVRS. This resulted in a dramatic reduction of exceptions that had to be corrected by the municipalities within those involved counties. This Memorandum provides a more detailed explanation of the anomalies and reaffirm G.A.B.’s direction from November 18, 2011  regarding the use of county GIS municipal and ward boundaries in SVRS to minimize exceptions requiring further action by clerks.

Please read the entire memoradum attached above.

As you know, G.A.B. staff and county and municipal clerks have been working feverishly to prepare for the February 2012 Spring Primary.  I would like to take a moment to commend Wisconsin’s county and municipal clerks for their diligence and their patience during these difficult times.  We all acknowledge that there is a lot of work to do related to redistricting, in very short period of time.  G.A.B. staff are committed to continuing to work in partnership with Wisconsin’s clerks to resolve outstanding issues and help get the work done.

That being said, we all understand that there is a finite amount of time between now and the February primary, and a limited number of staff available to work on Redistricting.  This is true for both your local offices and for us.  With that in mind, we have some suggestions to help you prioritize the redistricting work that needs to be done in order to be ready for the February Primary.  We also want to be prepared for Election Day in the event that not all of the clean-up is complete.  This is a possibility that we all need to be prepared for.  Here are some recommendations:

• Review your voters who are on the absentee list first.  Absentee ballots will start getting issued shortly, and you want to be sure you are sending your voters the correct ballots.  If you use SVRS for absentee, it is particularly important to resolve absentee voters who have no district combo or are assigned to the wrong district.

• Review the district assignments for all voters who return absentee ballots BEFORE you send the ballots to the polling place.  If you continue to fix voters after you issue absentee ballots, the district assignment for these voters may have changed by the time the ballot gets returned.  Make sure you send the ballots to the updated polling place so that your poll workers will find them on the poll book.  If you determine that the wrong ballot style was mailed to the voter, please contact the voter immediately to resolve the issue.
• Be prepared to delay printing poll books until you have completed your redistricting work.  This will allow you the greatest amount of time to review and correct your exceptions.  Printing poll books before you have completed the work could cause larger problems at the polling place.  Voters are already unsure where to vote due to redistricting.  Having voters printed on the wrong poll books will only exacerbate the confusion at the polling place.
• Remember that polling place activities have changed due to the new Voter Photo ID law.  These new changes may cause some delays at the polling place.   That, in addition to redistricting, may be stressful for voters and for poll workers.  Having the cleanest data before you print poll books will help reduce problems and stress.
• Give your poll workers instructions on who to call if a voter believes they are registered and should be voting at that polling place, but they do not appear on the poll book.  There are likely to be some voters who do not appear on the poll book where they think they should.  In some cases, the voter may not know their polling place changed, and may need to be directed to a different polling place.  In other cases, SVRS could have incorrect information (most likely to due to voters not being properly districted) that caused the voter to appear on the wrong poll book.  Having someone in the clerk’s office available to help answer these questions may reduce the need for voters to re-register on Election Day.  This is particularly problematic if they re-register in the wrong district.  As usual, G.A.B. will also have staff available on Election Day to help support clerks if they are not sure how to direct the voter.
• Have your poll workers carefully review the address of all Election Day Registrations to confirm the voter is registering in the correct districts.  Some voters may be unsure of their polling place after Redistricting and may try to register at the wrong place.  Please be prepared to direct voters to the correct polling place if necessary. 
• Manually assign your voters to the correct district combos to correct problems that are still outstanding.  Many clerks have reported incidents to the G.A.B. and we are reviewing them as quickly as we can.   In the event that we do not get your incident resolved by the time you are issuing ballots or printing poll books, you can manually assign the impacted voters to the correct district combo to get the problem(s) fixed in the short term.
• If you open an incident, check SVRS periodically to see if it has been resolved.  In some cases, G.A.B. staff have resolved incidents but have not yet notified the clerk that it is resolved.  Please feel free to check SVRS if you are not sure.  Please however, do not open a 2nd incident if you already opened one.  That only causes further delays in processing. 
• If your incident does not impact the February Primary, please be patient.  G.A.B. staff are prioritizing incidents that impact the February Primary first.  For example, district combo updates that have no voters, district combo updates for districts that are not on the primary ballot, or problems for municipalities that do not have a February primary will be prioritized lower.  These incidents will be addressed, but we may not get to them until after the Primary.  Please be patient in the meantime, and allow us to focus on the most critical incidents.  
• Updated resources are available.  G.A.B. staff have created a Frequently Asked Questions document that is posted on the Redistricting page on the G.A.B. website, and is attached to this memorandum.  The updated Redistricting training guide is also available on the Redistricting page.  http://gab.wi.gov/clerks/redistricting
• You will continue to get communications from G.A.B. regarding Redistricting, and other updates related to the February Primary.  We know that clerks are frustrated whenever you are inundated with communications from G.A.B.  We respect that and try to minimize the number of e-mails sent to clerks.  Please continue to visit the Recent Clerk Communications page though, because further updates will continue to be posted.

Again, I would like to thank our clerk partners for all of your efforts during Redistricting. Please continue to report incidents on our Incident website, http://wisapps.wi.gov/sites/GAB/Incident/default.aspx. Thanks.

cc: Ross Hein
 Elections Supervisor
 

Teleconference for Municipal and County Clerks
Redistricting Incidents:  Discussion of G.A.B. Protocol for Assisting Clerk to Resolve Challenges
Thursday, March 1, 2012 - 1-3:00 p.m.
Phone Number:  (888) 517-2485
Passcode:   6253 501#

Meeting Objectives:  The following objectives are expected to be accomplished:

• Discussion of the process and timeline being used to assist clerks to resolve incidents related to Redistricting
• Discussion of the upcoming forums, including webinars that will be held to assist clerks with April Election readiness
• Discussion of recent election administration statutory and policy changes including Photo ID, Canvassing, Provisional Tracking, Felon Lists, etc. 

Meeting Agenda:

1. Greetings/Remarks
2. Purpose of the Meeting
3. Factors Contributing to the Redistricting Situation
4. Protocol for Providing Assistance for Resolving Redistricting Incidences
5. Photo ID, Canvassing, Provisional Tracking, Felon Lists, etc. 
6. Discussion
7. Remind Clerks of Webinar (noted below)
8. Adjourn

Webinar for Municipal and County Clerks
SVRS Redistricting:  Lessons Learned for Data Cleanup Experiences
Friday, March 2, 2012 - 10-11:30 a.m.
Web link:  https://www1.gotowebinar.com/register/960961769
_______
Basic Guidelines for Participating in Teleconference Call:  1) Please mute telephones when not speaking in order to eliminate interfering noises.  2) Please allow each segmented of the Agenda to be presented before discussion/questions.  3) Please state your name and municipality/county when speaking.  We appreciate your cooperation in order to ensure a meaningful exchange.  Thank you.