Ethics commission previews new campaign finance system, plans public launch after spring election

MADISON, Wis. — On Jan. 7, 2025, staff for the Wisconsin Ethics Commission demonstrated a redesigned campaign finance system — including a public “Sunshine” site and an authenticated filer portal — and told commissioners the new system is expected to go live after the spring election in April.

The demonstration, led by a commission staff member, showed a public-facing dashboard the staff said will include searchable transactions, committee registration details and summary reports. The staff member said the system currently being developed with vendor Savara contains more than 10,000,000 file transactions, approximately 41,000–42,000 registrants and about 120,000 filed reports loaded into the new interface.

Commissioners were shown two distinct views: a public browsing interface, which staff said will let users create custom reports and view committee summaries, and an authenticated filer dashboard where users can register committees, invite other users with defined roles, enter and import transactions and submit reports.

Staff described several features intended to reduce common reporting errors and speed audits. A transactions table provides live validation warnings — for example flagging contributions that exceed statutory limits or entries missing required occupation information — and displays an audit trail of who created or changed a row. The presenter said those features should let filers correct common mistakes before submitting reports and could reduce violations and staff enforcement time.

The authenticated portal also supports role-based access (administrator, report filer, transaction editor, transaction viewer), two-factor authentication for accepting conduit transmittal letters and a universal contributor/payee search so repeat entries can be filled automatically. Staff demonstrated a spreadsheet importer that accepts standard CSV or Excel formats and auto-maps columns when a commission template is used; staff said that importer will accept data from bookkeeping tools such as QuickBooks when properly formatted.

"If you're doing your data entry as you go along or even right before your report, you'll know if you got an excess right away, and you can return it quickly and avoid a violation," the staff member said during the demonstration.

Staff also described a deduplication effort the vendor will carry out so that multiple instances of the same contributor name in the database are consolidated, helping to calculate contribution totals accurately across county and office limits. The vendor and staff plan additional testing before launch; staff said they aim for a larger pool of about 100 volunteer testers, and that the vendor will perform load testing to ensure the system handles filings and public queries at scale.

On operations and vendor support, staff said the current contract covers the remainder of the current fiscal year and all of the next fiscal year, and that the commission has requested additional legislative funding to extend vendor support one more fiscal year beyond that. Staff said the commission will later evaluate whether to operate the site fully in-house or continue a vendor relationship for maintenance and fixes.

The presenter said staff will continue to refine text and help prompts in the portal to make it easier for local candidates and first-time filers; commissioners raised questions about how clerks and commission staff will assist filers who need in-person help. Staff said the commission will offer tutorials, short “how-to” videos and training sessions for clerks and filers and will continue to provide public-access terminals and phone support at commission offices.

Staff said the launch timing — after the April spring election — is intended to give filers time to become familiar with the system before the July filing cycle. The system demonstration occupied most of the commission’s open-session meeting and concluded with commissioners thanking staff for the work and asking for follow-up testing and user materials ahead of the April live date.

Staff and the vendor did not present a formal rule or vote on the system at the Jan. 7 meeting; commissioners asked for continued communication about testing, training for local clerks and the status of the vendor contract and funding.