On April 3, Brian Defferding, a member of the Libertarian Party, was elected to the Winnebago County, Wisconsin Board of Supervisors. The race was nonpartisan and he was the only candidate on the ballot for District 6.
He was simultaneously running for Neenah City Counci, district one, and he did not win that race. Here is his facebook page explaining the incident that caused him to run for both offices. Thanks to Andy Craig for this news.
County supervisors must not do much in Wisconsin. Winnebago County has 36 supervisors. 32 of which were elected with no opposition. 2 districts were contested. One of these had a 392:392 tie, with the tie broken with a 5:4 roll of the dice. 2 other districts had no candidates. Write-in votes were recorded, and it appears that there were votes for registered write-in candidates.
A town supervisor is the executive officer of a town (where a town is a township, and not a small city). The county board of supervisors was comprised of the supervisors of the county’s towns. The board of supervisors was more like a regional council of government. After the OMOV decisions of the 60s this was ruled to be in violation of equal protection since towns had vastly different populations.
This resulted in drawing of supervisor districts of equal population. But because previously supervisors had served in dual roles, it is permissible for candidates to be elected to city/town and county offices. Supervisor districts are concentrated in cities such as Oshkosh and Neenah. Defferding’s supervisor district is smaller than his city council district.