How to Have Your Say Next Week on Who Serves in Local Government

Candidate fields will be narrowed for the April 5 general election.

Wisconsin voters will take to the polls Tuesday for the Feb. 15 primary election to decide who’s on their ballots come the April 5 spring election for local nonpartisan offices.

Numerous posts are at stake, ranging from school board memberships to mayorships. Not every community will have a primary election—only in those instances where a large field of candidates needs to be whittled down to the final two per available office. 

In the case of at-large elections, primaries are held when there are more than twice the number of candidates per number of seats—such as more than six candidates for three board seats. The primary will decide which six advance to the general election.

Candidates who move on to the April election will vie for the opportunity to make decisions that have direct impacts on everyday life, whether they be about prioritizing local spending for federal COVID-19 relief money or choosing local schools’ curriculum.

To find out if there is a primary in your community and, if so, who is on your ballot, enter your address on myvote.wi.gov.

Here are some of the most noteworthy primaries with multiple candidates:

• Mayor of Milwaukee, Ashland, Neenah, Boscobel, Lake Geneva, Marshfield, Nekoosa, New Holstein, Oconto, Portage, Rhinelander, and Viroqua
  
• County executive for Portage and Kenosha counties
  

• School boards in: 
  • Appleton
  • Auburndale
  • Baldwin-Woodville
  • Barneveld
  • Beloit
  • Black River Falls
  • Bristol
  • Burlington
  • Butternut
  • Cedarburg
  • Clear Lake
  • Columbus
  • East Troy
  • Eau Claire
  • Elcho
  • Elmbrook
  • Elmwood
  • Fort Atkinson
  • Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau
  • Germantown
  • Gibraltar
  • Glenwood City
  • Greendale
  • Hartford High School
  • Hartford J1
  • Howard-Suamico
  • Kaukauna
  • Kiel
  • La Crosse
  • Lodi
  • Manawa
  • Manitowoc
  • Marathon City
  • Marshfield
  • Menomonee Falls
  • Menomonie
  • Mequon-Thiensville
  • Mount Horeb
  • Neenah
  • New Glarus
  • New Lisbon
  • New London
  • New Richmond
  • North Crawford
  • North Fond du Lac
  • Oconto Falls
  • Osceola
  • Oshkosh
  • Owen-Withee
  • Phillips
  • Platteville
  • Pulaski
  • Racine
  • Raymond
  • Reedsville
  • Shell Lake
  • Sparta
  • Spring Valley
  • Stevens Point
  • Tomahawk
  • Tomorrow River
  • Tri-County Area (Plainfield)
  • Washburn
  • Waukesha
  • Webster
  • West De Pere
  • Westby
  • Whitnall
  • Wisconsin Rapids

The Milwaukee mayor’s race will narrow a seven-candidate field down to two choices to succeed former Mayor Tom Barrett, who left office after nearly two decades to become the US ambassador to Luxembourg.