The Spring Election Calendar

Local elections in Wisconsin happen in spring

The single most important thing to internalize before running is when the race happens. In Wisconsin, local nonpartisan offices — including a city mayor — are filled at the spring election, held on the first Tuesday in April, with a spring primary on the third Tuesday in February when one is needed ¹. This is a completely separate cycle from the familiar November partisan elections, and missing its deadlines means waiting a full term to run again. Because Stoughton’s mayor serves a four-year term, the mayoral seat is only on the ballot once every four years — so timing matters even more than in an annual council race.

The five dates that define a candidacy

Read the timeline left to right; these are the checkpoints every candidate plans around ¹.

1. December 1 — nomination papers may begin circulating. You may not collect a single petition signature before this date; signatures gathered earlier do not count ¹. This is the practical “starting gun.”
2. First Tuesday in January, 5:00 p.m. — the filing deadline. Everything required to get on the ballot must be in the City Clerk’s hands by this moment: your campaign registration, your declaration of candidacy, and your nomination papers. Miss it and your name does not appear ².
3. Third Tuesday in February — the spring primary (only if needed). A primary is held for an office only when more than twice as many candidates file as there are seats. For the single mayoral seat that means a primary occurs when three or more candidates qualify; it narrows the field to two for April.
4. First Tuesday in April — the spring election. The decisive vote. With two candidates (or fewer than three total), there is no February primary and the race is settled here.
5. After the canvass — taking office. Once results are certified, the winner is sworn in and the four-year term begins (covered in the final lesson).

Working backward from the deadline

The filing deadline is the hinge of the whole plan. Because papers cannot circulate before December 1 and must be filed by early January, you have roughly five weeks to gather every required signature — in a Wisconsin winter. Serious candidates therefore decide to run, register, and prepare their materials in the autumn, so that on December 1 they can begin collecting signatures immediately rather than scrambling in the final days.

A practical note on dates: the exact calendar shifts each cycle (the figure’s italic dates show the 2026 cycle as an example). Always confirm the current cycle’s filing deadline and primary/election dates with the Stoughton City Clerk and the Wisconsin Elections Commission before relying on them ². The next two lessons cover exactly what you file by that January deadline and how the signature requirement works.