Checklist II for the 2010 Spring Election is now posted to the GAB web site.  See attached file.

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

A new version of SVRS, version 7.0, has been installed in Production and is ready for clerks to use. Please see the Key Changes document attached below for a more complete list of the updates in SVRS version 7.0.

Highlights of the changes in the new version of SVRS include:

• The "ballots" node and "ballot styles" subnode under an election have been consolidated, so there is a single node called "ballot styles."
• The voter application has been updated so that when you link to an existing voter record, fields from the mailing and residential addresses will not copy onto the new voter application. In addition, you no longer have to enter slashes in the date of birth field.
• When entering an absentee application, it will search for duplicates right away instead of waiting until you process the absentee application. When running the quick task to issue ballot labels in batch, the filter screen now includes drop-down values for many fields to make filtering easier. When the batch is complete, a log is available to view which shows any voters who did not get ballot labels generated, and why.
• Recording voter participation is now faster.
• Several updates were made to the candidate filings screen. See information attached below.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact the G.A.B. Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov, or 608-261-2028.

Thank you.
Barbara A. Hansen, CERA
Statewide Voter Registration System Director
Government Accountability Board, Elections Division
P.O. Box 7984
Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7984
608-267-0714
barbara1.hansen@wi.gov

cc: Nat Robinson
Elections Division Administrator
Government Accountability Board

• All military and overseas electors need to be tracked in SVRS.  August 4, 2010 is the deadline for sending state write-in ballots to military and overseas voters who already have absentee ballot requests on file for the November Election.
• Providers and Self Providers not using Regular Absentee will need to use Absentee Lite to track the military and overseas electors for their reliers and their municipality respectively.
• Providers and Self Providers not using Regular Absentee need to view the Absentee Lite training video.  Click here to watch. Clerks will need to enter their name and municipal information.  The Absentee Lite Manual Chapter is available in the SVRS Application Training Manual.
• Recent updates to tracking absentees in SVRS have recently been made.  Municipalities using Regular Absentee in SVRS will want to review the SVRS Manual Chapters with step-by-step instructions for using the new functionality in Absentee Applications and Absentee Ballots available now online in the SVRS Application Training Manual.

Checklist III for the September Partisan Primary is now available on the G.A.B. website as an attachement below.   This checklist covers post-Election Day activities.  

• Self Providers or Providers for their Relier(s) should record voter participation and process Election Day registrations in SVRS
• Municipal Clerks should complete the GAB-190 through the WEDCS system within 30 days following the election.
• Clerks should compare the response on question 2 of the GAB-190 to the total votes in SVRS.

Thank you for your continued cooperation.  We look forward to a successful wrap-up of the September Partisan Primary! 

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

        Barbara A. Hansen
        SVRS Director   
    Wisconsin Government Accountability Board   

The Checklist II for the 2011 February Primary is now available (click on attachment above). This Checklist covers activities from the checking of Milestone 3 through the close of registration.

• The State has checked Milestone #3 for the 2011 February Primary.
• Counties must enter contests and candidates and then can check Milestone #3 for the 2011 February Primary, no later than January 21, 2011.  Please immediately notify Self-Providers that Milestone #3 has been completed at the county level.
• Municipalities must enter contests and candidates and then can check Milestone #3 for the 2011 February Primary, no later than January 25, 2011.
• New Checklist II also includes all Close of Registration and Poll Book printing information.
• The next checklist will be provided after the February 15, 2011 Primary.

Thank you for you usual cooperation.  We look forward to an exciting and successful 2011 Spring Election Cycle.

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

The Checklist II for the 2011 April Spring Election is now available on the G.A.B. website as an attachment at the link above.  This Checklist covers activities from the checking of Milestone 3 through the close of registration. 

• The State has checked Milestone #3 for the 2011 April Spring Election
• Counties must enter contests and candidates and then can check Milestone #3 for the 2011 April Spring Election, no later than noon, Monday, March 14, 2011.  Please immediately notify Self-Providers that Milestone #3 has been completed at the county level.
• Municipalities must enter contests and candidates and then can check Milestone #3 for the 2011 April Spring Election, no later than March 15, 2011. 
• New Checklist II also includes all Close of Registration and Poll Book printing information.The next checklist will be provided after the April 5, 2011 Election.

Thank you for you usual cooperation.  We look forward to an exciting and successful 2011 Spring Election Cycle.

cc:     Kevin J. Kennedy

          Director and General Counsel

         Government Accountability Board

WHO:  SVRS Users and Staff

WHEN:   Saturday, May 21 (8 am) through Monday, May 23 (8 pm)

WHAT:  SVRS will be UNAVAILABLE this Saturday morning, May 21, 2011 (8 am) through Monday evening, May 23, 2011 (8 pm).  SVRS is being upgraded to new hardware.  Users will NOT be able to access the system until the upgrade is complete. 

All work is expected to be completed by 8:00 PM Monday May 23. We will advise you when the work has been completed.

We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Please contact the G.A.B. Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov or 608-261-2028 if you have any questions.

SVRS will be unavailable on Sunday evening, March 18, 2012, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.  This outage is to install a new version of SVRS that corrects a couple of glitches in the Absentee functionality reported by clerks.  The following glitches are expected to be resolved with this update:

• Clerks were getting a message when trying to process absentee applications telling them that changes were made that need to be saved.  This should no longer occur.
• The absentee ballot labels used for Dymo label printing were displaying the words “true” or “false” instead of displaying the Photo ID indicators.  This has been corrected.  These fields will be blank on the label unless a voter is marked for Photo ID Provided or Photo ID Exempt.  If these fields are marked, then the words “ID Provided” or “ID Exempt” will appear on the label. (Please note that Photo ID has been enjoined by the court – you should not enforce any Photo ID requirements at this time.  The Photo ID indicators on the ballot labels will only be used if the Photo ID law is restored by an appeals court.)
• The absentee certificate envelop mailing in SVRS was cutting off when printed directly.  It would only print properly when exported to PDF.  This has been fixed and the mailing can now be printed directly.
• The Absentee Ballot Listing Report was cutting off columns on the far right edge of the report.  This has been corrected.  All columns will now appear on that report when printing or exporting.

We appreciate your patience with these unexpected glitches.  Unfortunately, given the multiple initiatives and statutory changes going on simultaneously (Redistricting, Photo ID, Recalls, new legislation), we have had to make many updates to SVRS very rapidly.  This can cause bugs and other unexpected problems.  We thank you for reporting these to us, and we ask that you continue to do so. 

If you have questions, please continue to report issues on our Incident Website, http://wisapps.wi.gov/sites/GAB/Incident/default.aspx, or 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
 

On March 30, the Government Accountability Board ordered recalls for the office of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and State Senators in Districts 13, 21, 23, and 29. The elections will be conducted on May 8.  Depending on the number of candidates, the May 8th election could be a primary, with a general election on June 5.

The G.A.B. will host a webinar on how the recall elections will be conducted in SVRS on Thursday, April 5, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.  A link to register for the webinar follows: https://www1.gotowebinar.com/register/919370000.  This webinar will be most useful to municipalities in one of the four State Senate Districts subject to a recall election– other municipalities do not need to attend.

• All recall elections will be run in the new wards and polling places established in SVRS that resulted from the 2010 decennial redistricting.  The new ward plans continue to be effective, so poll books will be printed and results will be reported based on the new ward boundaries.  This means that voters will not have to switch back to previous wards or polling places, and other special elections held on May 8th and June 5th can be run with the same poll books, ballots, and voting equipment. 
• The State Senate recalls will be run from SVRS based upon the State Senate Districts in existence since 2002.  2011 Wisconsin Act 43 states that for special elections like recalls, the Act 43 State Senate Districts will not become effective until the November 6, 2012 General Election.  This means that municipalities that voted for State Senators in districts 13, 21, 23, and 29 in 2010 will be a part of the State Senate recall elections.  Municipalities that will be moved into one of these State Senate Districts as a result of Act 43, but were not in that district in the past, will not be a part of the State Senate recall elections.
• Reporting units for the recall elections do not need to follow Assembly Districts, as this is not a general election.  However, this is a partisan election, so poll books must match reporting units and the way ballots and voting equipment are programmed.  Counties and municipalities are encouraged to work together to determine how the election will be administered.
• Municipalities or counties that plan to have other contests on the ballot on May 8th or June 5th (such as school referenda) should contact the G.A.B. Help Desk for assistance.
• Voters in the four State Senate recall elections will be identified in SVRS with a special district combo based on the address where they currently reside.  If the current residential address is inside of the State Senate District in existence since 2002, the voter will be eligible to vote in the State Senate recall contests.  If the current residential address is outside of the State Senate District in existence since 2002, the voter will not be eligible to vote in the State Senate recall contests.
• Most municipalities inside of the State Senate Districts in existence since 2002 are entirely within the district and will only have one ballot style in the recall elections.
• A few municipalities are partially inside of the State Senate Districts in existence since 2002, and partially outside of those districts.  Because ward lines have changed, this may mean that some voters in a ward will vote in the State Senate recall contest, and some voters in the same ward will not.  SVRS will generate a different ballot style for these voters, so that on the poll book and absentee ballot label, it will clearly identify which ballot the voter should receive and vote.

Columbia            City of Columbus
Dane            City of Edgerton
Dodge            City of Hartford
Dodge            City of Waupun
Dunn            City of Menomonie
Eau Claire        City of Altoona
Eau Claire        City of Eau Claire
Eau Claire        Town of Washington
Jefferson            Village of Johnson Creek
Marathon            Village of Dorchester
Marathon            Village of Edgar
Marathon            City of Abbotsford
Marathon            City of Marshfield
Racine            Village of Waterford
Waukesha        City of Oconomowoc
Waukesha        Town of Oconomowoc
Wood            City of Marshfield

G.A.B. staff will be contacting these municipalities individually to discuss ballot preparation and procedures for verifying that voters are issued the correct ballots.  

A list of important dates:

• March 30 – First date to begin circulating nomination papers for recall election. Please refer anyone with a data request for voters or addresses in the recall districts to the Government Accountability Board.  The election will be created in SVRS on this date.
• April 10 – Filing Deadline for Candidates. 
• April 13 – Challenge Deadline for Candidates.  The G.A.B. will issue a certification of candidates on the ballot after the 5 p.m. deadline, if there are no nomination paper challenges.
• April 16 -- The G.A.B. will mark milestone #3 in SVRS.
• April 17 – Deadline to issue absentee ballots by mail.  In the event that printed ballots are not ready, clerks must send paper ballots to Military voters. 
• April 18 – Close of Registration.
• April 23 – Beginning of Clerks Office Absentee Voting.
• May 8 – Election Day. 

If you have questions on recall election issues, please contact the Help Desk at 608-261-2028, or by email at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov.  Thank you.

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

    Ross D. Hein
    Elections Supervisor
    Government Accountability Board
 

• The SVRS Checklist #3 for the February 2012 primary has been posted to the G.A.B. website as an attachment to this memorandum (see above).   Several updates have been made to reflect new post-election procedures.
• Clerks must post the number of outstanding absentee ballots on the internet and in their office after the close of polls on Election Day.  This requirement stems from Act 115, signed into law on February 17, 2012.   
• Clerks must now log all provisional ballots in the new Provisional Ballot Tracking System on Election Night.  Instructions on this system can be found by following the link in the checklist.

If you have questions on post-election activities in SVRS, please contact the Help Desk at
608-261-2028, or by email at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov.  Thank you.
 

NEW Checklist I for the 2012 June 5 Recall Election is now available.  See attachment above.  This checklist covers activities from inheriting the election through entering Contests and Candidates. 

• 2012 June 5 Recall Election is available to inherit in SVRS.
• Counties must inherit the 2012 June 5 Recall Election by May 9, 2012.
• Counties should check municipal reporting unit plans and polling place assignment plans for accuracy for the June 5 Recall Election.
• Municipalities must inherit the 2012 June 5 Recall Election by May 16, 2012. 

Please let us know if you need any assistance.  Thank you for you continued cooperation.  We look forward to an exciting and successful Spring Election Cycle.

If you questions or require assistance, please contact the GAB Help Desk at (608) 261-2028, or GABHelpDesk@wi.gov  Thank you.

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

• The SVRS Checklist #1 and SVRS Checklist #2 for the August 14, 2012 Partisan Primary Election are attached.
• There are new ballot position numbers to use when entering your contests.
• For the 2012 Partisan Primary and the 2012 General Election, Reporting Unit Plans cannot cross Congressional, Senate or Assembly District Lines, and Reporting Unit Plans and Polling Place Assignment Plans are required to match.
• Make sure that all of your data quality issues are fixed in SVRS before you issue absentee ballots. 

1. The districts listed on the ballot label must be correct, or voters must be manually assigned to the correct district if the map in SVRS is wrong.
2. Voters with no district combo must be fixed before they can be sent absentee ballots or show up on the poll list.
3. Geocode exceptions and Address/Boundary exceptions must be verified to ensure voters are placed in the correct district.
4. If you have a school district contest, voters on the School District Exception report must be verified.
5. Please double check the converted addresses from the spreadsheet emailed to you by the G.A.B. Most do not have to be fixed, but a few addresses may be incorrect. Please check the tab for your absentee addresses before sending ballots.
6. Normal data quality checks, like Felon and Death record matches, still need to be completed. 

• Separate instructions for processing and tracking absentee ballots will be sent to jurisdictions with recall elections that coincide with the August 14, 2012 Partisan Primary

Should you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov, or (608) 261-2028. Thank you.

SVRS (version 8.2.1) will be installed Sunday, July 29, 2012.  The new version of SVRS will help support the August 2012 election and includes updates to SVRS Reports, WEDCS, Canvass, the Provisional tracker, and the Outstanding Absentee tracker.

The following is a summary of the updates included in SVRS (version 8.2.1) and what clerks can expect to see as a result:

SVRS Reports

A new report is being provided to clerks to help reconcile elections.  The new WI Voter Participation - All Voters report will show all voters who voted in a given election, including merged out voters, moved out voters, voters with no district combo, etc. This report should be run in conjunction with the Vote Count by Voting Method report to verify that all voter participation has been correctly reported. 

WEDCS

The cost report section of the GAB-190 will now be in WEDCS.

• The cost report will be listed at the top of the list for counties
• The cost report will be listed after all reporting units for each municipality
• If a municipality is in multiple counties, the cost report will be listed after all reporting units under the “MAIN” jurisdiction
• The “Print Report” function for the cost section will not be available until the November election. If ready sooner, clerks will be notified. Until that time, the cost report can be printed using the internet browser’s printing capability
• Every other line is highlighted/shaded to help clerks make sure they are entering information on the correct line.

Canvass

• A new Canvass Municipality Report – GAB 106 has been added for municipalities using the Canvass system.  This report will only print reporting units within your municipality.
• The Canvass Report – GAB 106 has been updated.  If you select ALL in the Jurisdiction Type dropdown, the report will include the percent of reporting units complete for each contest.  This information appears after the Summary statement. To get a Certification Page for county or municipal contests, you can select County or Municipality for the Jurisdiction Type.  The report will now distinguish between zeros entered for a reporting unit by the clerk versus if nothing has been entered.  This report also allows you to print each result set that you have entered, or just the latest results.  Note that this report does not provide a certification page for State or Federal offices, only municipality or county offices.
• County canvasses can now be run independently from one another.  In the past, all counties had to reach a certain phase (such as original, late arriving and provisional, recount) before any county could move to the next phase.
• A new result set has been added for late arriving absentee and provisional ballots so that counties can report their original result set, and do a late arriving and provisional result set through the Canvass system.
• For counties that upload files, they will be able to see the way that fields are mapped from their uploaded file to the Canvass system, to assist in troubleshooting upload issues.
• School district referenda will now appear on the School District tab instead of the State tab.

Provisional Tracker

Several miscellaneous technical bug fixes are included in this version.

Outstanding Absentees Tracker

The Outstanding Absentee tracker has been updated so that you can select and update all reporting units at once for a given municipality if that municipality has zero outstanding absentee ballots.  

Updated SVRS Manual Chapters for WEDCS and Canvass

Updated chapters of the SVRS Training Manual for WEDCS and Canvass are being developed to give clerks complete instructions on these new changes.  The manual chapters will be posted to the Training area of the G.A.B. website by Monday, August 13, 2012.  Clerk are encouraged to refer to these new materials and replace their old materials.

Click and Mail

A communication regarding Click and Mail will be sent to clerks next week.  As you may recall, Click and Mail is a new service that allows voters to fill out a voter registration application on the Voter Public Access (VPA) website.  After answering the questions on VPA, the voter can print off a neatly typed voter registration application which they can mail in or deliver it to the clerk’s office or polling place.  The upcoming communication will inform clerks when Click and Mail will become available, and will include a clerk training guide.  A Click and Mail webinar for clerks will also be held the week of August 20, 2012.  Watch for additional information regarding Click and Mail.

If you need further information, please contact the G.A.B. Help Desk at ( 608) 261-2028, or GABHelpDesk@wi.gov.  Thank you.
 

A corrected SVRS Checklist #2 for the February 19, 2013 Spring Primary Election is now available.  The Checklist covers activities from the checking of Milestone #3 through printing poll books. 

• The original version contained an incorrect link to form GAB-107 on the website. The correct link is http://gab.wi.gov/forms/gab-107.
• The State has checked Milestone #3 for the February 19, 2013 Spring Primary Election.
• Counties and municipalities must enter all county and local contests and candidates and then check Milestone #3.  Milestone #3 must be checked by the Counties by Wednesday, January 23, 2013.
• All municipalities must generate ballot styles and check off Milestone #4 by January 29, 2013.  Online military absentee ballots must be available on January 29, 2013.

Should you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov, or (608) 261-2028. Thank you.

SVRS Checklist #1 for the April 2, 2013 Spring Election is attached.

• The state has created the April 2, 2013 Spring Election in SVRS and any County or Municipality that has not yet inherited the 2013 Spring Election should do so.
• Because of changes to the districts types last year, G.A.B staff is temporarily entering all school district contests and multi-jurisdictional judge contests.

-- Counties with School District Primary results must notify the G.A.B. of the candidate winners, in correct ballot order.  Please provide this information to the G.A.B. HelpDesk as soon as the primary election is certified.

-- Counties with School District Contests, School District Referenda, or Multi-Jurisdictional Judge Contests that did not have a primary should notify G.A.B. staff with candidate names, in proper ballot order.  This is only required if you have not done so already.

-- Counties and municipalities need to double check that their school district contests and multi-jurisdictional judge contests have been correctly entered by the state.

-- If any of these contests/candidates are incorrect in SVRS, you must contact the G.A.B to correct the inaccuracies by close of business Monday, March 4, 2013.  Please make every possible attempt to provide this information as quickly as possible.  These candidates and contests must be entered correctly before the state checks milestone #3

• Counties and municipalities must set up all other local contests and candidates just as they have done in the past.
• All municipalities must generate ballot styles and check off Milestone #4 by Monday, March 12, 2013.  Online military absentee ballots must be available on March 12, 2013.  Additional information on this step will be provided in SVRS Checklist #2
• Now is the time to make sure that all of your data quality issues are fixed in SVRS before you issue absentee ballots.

-- The districts listed on the ballot label must be correct, or voters must be manually assigned to the correct district if the map in SVRS is wrong.

-- Voters with no district combo must be fixed before they can be sent absentee ballots or show up on the poll list.

-- Geocode exceptions and Address/Boundary exceptions must be verified to ensure voters are placed in the correct district.

-- Normal data quality checks, like Felon and Death record matches, still need to be completed.

Should you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Help Desk at gabhelpdesk@wi.gov, or (608) 261-2028. Thank you.