Public Meeting Notices From 25 Most Populous Municipalities

On October 15, 2014, the Office of the Wisconsin Attorney General issued a formal opinion that elections processes are open meetings; Specifically the canvassing of votes by the various Boards of Canvassers are opne meetings must follow the rules for public meeting such as 24 hours notice of the times and places of the mettings.  The AG opinion can be found at: http://www.doj.state.wi.us/sites/default/files/formal/OAG-05-14.pdf

One of the types of canvassing boards is the Local Board of Canvassers.  This meeting occurs in the polling location and begins, when the chief election inspectors announces: "Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Polls are now Closed."  The members of the Local Board of Canvassers are the election inspectors and the duties of the Local Board of Canvassers are laid out in WI Stats. 7.51.  The duties include reconciling poll books, reconciling that the nubmer of ballots handed to electors equals the number of ballots in the ballots box, securing the ballots, announcing results, etc.

Now that his age old requirement that election canvassing be public has been formally recognized by the state of Wisconsin's open meeting law, I thought I would survey the compliance to the notice requirements of WI stats. 19.84 by subscribing to the meeting notices under WI stats. 19.84(1)(b).  I chose to subscribe to the meeting notice of the Local Boards of Canvassers for the 25 most populous cities in the state of Wisconsin.

Among other things this subscription provide an enumeration  of the polling locations.  Something many communities do not readily provide.  True if you provide an address the site will tell you the polling location.  But election integity work it is useful to have a list of all poling location.  In the past I have used Zillow.com to find a house address, and then pasted the address of the house for sale into the municipal Find your Polling Location page order to determine the location of a polling location near some neighborhood.

The other  protection afforded by the AG ruling that elections are open meeting is that you can now video tape or audio record the canvassing of the vote by any board of canvassers (local, municipal, school, county,etc) without fear of arrest as happened on November 6, 2012 when the three of us dared to video tape the local canvassing of the vote at the Zablocki Library.  Tossed by Commission David Redemann no less.  The exact quote fro the chief inspector was: Get out!!! We're working here!

If you would like to observe the canvassing of the vote by the local boards of canvassers after polls close, here is where those meeting will be held for 21 of the 25 most populous municipalities in Wisconsin:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

November 4, 2014 General Election
Muncipality	Name of Municipal Clerk	Link to Public Notice
City of Appleton	Dawn  Collins	Type D Notice Provided
City of Beloit	Rebecca Houseman Lemire	Type D Notice Provided
City of Brookfield	Kelly S Michaels	Type D Notice Provided
City of Eau Claire	Donna A. Austad	No 19.84 public meeting notice was provided as of 8:00 pm, Monday, November 3, 2014
City of Fond du Lac	Maggie  Hefter	Type D Notice Provided
City of Franklin	Sandra  Wesolowski	Type D Notice Provided
City of Green Bay	Kris  Teske	Type D Notice Provided
City of Greenfield	Jennifer  Goergen	Type D Notice Provided
City of Janesville	Jean Ann Wulf	Type D Notice Provided
City of Kenosha	Debra  Salas	Type D Notice Provided
City of La Crosse	Teri  Lehrke	Type D Notice Provided
City of Madison	Maribeth L Witzel-Behl	Type D Notice Provided
City of Manitowoc	Jennifer  Hudon	Type D Notice Provided
Village of Menomonee Falls	Janice  Moyer	Type D Notice Provided
City of Milwaukee	Neil  Albrecht	Type D Notice Provided (English)
City of Milwaukee	Neil  Albrecht	Type D Notice Provided (Spanish)
City of New Berlin	Kari  Morgan	Type D Notice Provided
City of Oak Creek	Catherine A Roeske	No 19.84 public meeting notice was provided as of 8:00 pm, Monday, November 3, 2014
City of Oshkosh	Pamela  Ubrig	No 19.84 public meeting notice was provided as of 8:00 pm, Monday, November 3, 2014
City of Racine	Janice M Johnson-Martin	No 19.84 public meeting notice was provided as of 8:00 pm, Monday, November 3, 2014
City of Sheboygan	Susan  Richards	No 19.84 public meeting notice was provided as of 8:00 pm, Monday, November 3, 2014
City of Waukesha	Gina  Kozlik	Type D Notice Provided
City of Wausau	Toni  Rayala	Type D Notice Provided
City of Wauwatosa	Carla  Ledesma	Type D Notice Provided
City of West Allis	Monica  Schultz	Type D Notice Provided
City of West Bend	Amy  Reuteman	Type D Notice Provided