ERC 71.01ERC 71.01 Policy. This chapter implements the portion of s. 111.70 (4) (d) 3. b., Stats., requiring the commission to conduct an annual election, no later than May 1, to determine whether collective bargaining representation shall continue for represented municipal sector general nonschool district employees who, as of January 30, are not subject to a collective bargaining agreement or are subject to a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after June 29, 2011. The existing exclusive representative of such employees that wishes to continue said representation, or any other labor organization interested in representing such employees, must file a petition on or before January 30 requesting the commission to conduct a secret ballot election to determine whether a minimum of 51 percent of the bargaining unit employees eligible to vote favor collective bargaining representation by the petitioner or another petitioning labor organization. If no timely petition is filed, the result is the same as if only the existing representative filed a timely petition and the election resulted in decertification of the existing representative. The procedures in this chapter are intended to expedite the processing of a petition so that the ballots are cast as soon as possible following the filing of the petition, while providing for an orderly and fair procedure for resolving outcome-determinative issues, including which ballots should be counted. Once a timely petition has been filed, an existing representative’s exclusive representative status is not adversely affected if the balloting is not concluded or the results of the election are not certified on or before May 1.