By when
must a candidate for an elective village or city office be a resident of
the municipality or district from which elected in order to be eligible
for office?
In order to be eligible for an elective
village office a person must reside in the village for at least 28
consecutive days before the election. Wis. Stat. secs. 61.19 and
6.02(1). This means that a person may file nomination papers as a
candidate for the office of village trustee or other village office even
if that person is not a resident elector of the village, since there is
no residency requirement for merely filing nomination papers under Wis.
Stat. sec. 8.10, Stats. Likewise, there is no requirement that a person
nominated by a village caucus under Wis. Stat. sec. 8.05 be a resident
elector of the village.
Similarly, in order to be eligible for
an elective city office a person must be a resident elector of the city
and, if the office is alderperson, a resident of the aldermanic
district, at least 28 days before the election. Wis. Stat. secs.
62.09(2)(a) and 6.02(1). Thus, a person may file nomination papers as a
candidate for the office of alderperson even if that person does not
currently reside in the aldermanic district which he or she seeks to
represent as long as he or she will be a resident of the district within
28 days of the election date.
Note that city and village law
differs from county law on this issue. Under Wis. Stat. sec. 59.20(1), a
person must be a resident elector of the county in order to be able to
file nomination papers as a candidate for county elective office.