University of Wisconsin - Extension

(YOUR TOWN) -- Although Wisconsin grew by about 472,000 people -- or 9.7 percent --in Census 2000, the state will lose one of its House of Representative seats, lowering the number to eight.

"This fall, state legislators will begin the process of redrawing Wisconsin's 33 senate and 99 assembly districts," explains Dan Elsass, University of Wisconsin-Extension local government specialist. "While redistricting is a politically charged process at all levels of government, the stakes are especially high because of Wisconsin?s loss of a congressional seat."

The three-step redistricting process for municipal and county redistricting requires cooperation and coordinating among counties and their related municipalities, Elsass explains. "The process begins at the county level, moves to the municipal level and finally culminates with county adoption of supervisor districts and city adoption of aldermanic districts. Each of the three phases is comprised of a 60-day response period."

Local officials and technical staff working in the process will have the opportunity to attend one of several redistricting road shows throughout the state in April. The road shows will be held as follows: April 9 in Madison, April 10 in Appleton, April 12 in Waukesha, April 18 in Stevens Point, April 19 in Eau Claire and April 20 in La Crosse.

Information will be presented on the basic legal requirements of redistricting, description of a ward, and how to report ward boundaries. Technical staff will receive hands-on training on the software program called the Wisconsin Shape Editor for Local Redistricting or WISE-LR application. WISE-LR will help municipalities and counties create new ward, supervisory and aldermanic plans as part of their redistricting effort, replacing the WISLR program used in the 1990 redistricting project.

"This software program will allow technical staff to assign census blocks and population data to build plans for supervisory districts, aldermanic districts and municipal wards," says Dan Veroff, demographic specialist at the UW-Madison/Extension Applied Population Lab. "The software can help generate alternative plans to examine many district boundaries."

"It is important for local officials to remember that the mapping process and options are a work in progress and that the technical staff should not advocate one option over another," adds Veroff. "Ultimately, each redistricting committee will receive input about the boundary options in a variety of ways and will make a final decision that minimizes unwanted changes."

More information and registration forms for the road shows is available by calling (608) 265-9545 or at the WISE-LR Web site at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/wiselr/.