Modifying the duties of a county clerk; the counties in which a board of election commissioners is required; and staffing of a board of election commissioners in populous counties. (FE)

2. Specifies that the clerk may appoint as many assistants as the county board authorizes. Currently, this provision applies only to counties with a population exceeding 150,000.

3. Requires a county board to appoint an acting clerk within 90 days of the board adopting a resolution finding that the clerk is incapable of discharging his or her duties. Currently, the county board may appoint an acting clerk if the clerk is incapable of discharging his or her duties.

4. Requires a clerk to create the agenda for board meetings, under the direction of the county board chairperson or committee chairperson, and file in the clerk's office copies of agendas and meetings of board and committee meetings.

5. Requires a clerk to keep records of board and committee proceedings, orders for payments, receipts and disbursements of money, and reports of the treasurer related to receipts and disbursements of the county, without specifying the form or medium in which such records are kept. Currently, a clerk is required to keep such records in a book.

6. Requires a clerk to notify a county commissioner of highways of the commissioner's election within ten days of the election and notify town officers of the levy and rate of tax for the county road and bridge fund. Currently, a clerk performed such notifications only in counties with a population of less than 150,000.

Under current law, a clerk is required to transmit annually to the secretary of state a typed or printed list showing the name and post-office address of certain specified municipal officials. Under this bill, a clerk is required to transmit annually to the secretary of state a list of the name, phone number, e-mail address, and post-office address of these same municipal officials, other unspecified local officials, and elective and appointive officials of any other local governmental unit that is wholly or partly within the county. The bill also requires the clerk, secretary, or other administrative officer of a local governmental unit to provide the county clerk any information he or she needs to complete this requirement.

The bill also repeals a number of obsolete provisions of current law. The bill repeals a requirement that a clerk transmit to the Department of Public Instruction certified copies of certain resolutions relating to raising money for school purposes, and repeals a requirement that a clerk transmit to the secretary of state a certified copy of an ordinance enacted by a village or town that relates to a change of the village's or town's name, the name of a newly organized town, or town boundary changes that result from county board action.

Currently, in each county over 500,000 population, elections are administered on the county level by a board of election commissioners instead of by the county clerk. This bill provides that, in each county over 750,000 population, elections are administered on the county level by a board of election commissioners instead of by the county clerk.

Currently, counties, municipalities, and special purpose districts share responsibility for administering elections in their jurisdictions. For purposes of election administration, county clerks are responsible for county functions except that, in counties having a population of more than 500,000 (Milwaukee County), county election functions are delegated by law to a bipartisan board of election commissioners. The board of election commissioners may hire an individual to serve as its executive director, whose employment and removal is subject to civil service standards. This bill provides that each county clerk is the chief election officer of the county in which the clerk serves. The bill does not change the distribution of election administration functions among governmental units. The bill also provides that, in counties having a population of more than 750,000, the county clerk shall serve as the executive director of the board of election commissioners. The change is effective on the day on which the bill becomes law.