Ballots

As election times approach, specific care must be given to the publication of the ballot as an insert or ROP in the newspaper. The newspaper publication of election ballots is required by Wisconsin law and it is a “public notice.”

Contact your county clerk and determine the method of publication that the county intends to use for the ballot. If the county plans to publish the ballot as an insert – and the insert will be provided to your newspaper as a pre-print – please request that the county include on each page of the ballot the WNA public notice coding – WNAXLP.

Explain, if necessary, to the county representative that Wisconsin statute now requires that all legal notices published in newspapers also appear on the WNA hosted public notice website.

Each legal notice must include the code WNAXLP in order for it to be posted to the WNA public notice website. The coding must appear on each page of a multiple page public notice – the ballot is in most cases a multiple page legal notice.

If the ballot is published ROP, it must contain the WNAXLP coding on all pages where ballot information is printed.

If the county provides you with a pre-print insert that does not include the WNAXLP coding, please forward a copy of the insert, either electronically or by USPS, to the WNA for coding. The WNA will code and post the ballot to the public notice website.