Thousands of Milwaukee voters have been dropped from rolls, including some erroneously

Thousands of Milwaukee voters have been dropped from voter rolls — including some erroneously — through the state's registration system, city officials said Wednesday.

Some 44,000 voters were removed from city rolls after the state started using a new process in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), they said. It's unclear how many of those were dropped in error.

"This is not a problem that has been caused at the local level," Mayor Tom Barrett said at a City Hall news conference.

Barrett said problems were caused by incorrect data provided by the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the U.S. Postal Service, leading some voters who haven't actually moved or changed addresses to be erroneously dropped from the rolls.

"We are very concerned with the number of legitimate voters whose records have been deactivated," Barrett said.

During the February primary — a small turnout election — nearly 100 city voters learned they had been removed from the polls even though they hadn't changed addresses, Barrett said. They were able to re-register and vote, he added.

City officials have been working with the state Elections Commission to identify errors.

The commission recently approved plans for supplemental poll lists, including everyone who was deactivated as a result of the move to ERIC, Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said. Those voters will not have to re-register at the polls.

"There's a very small percentage of people who were on that list who hadn't actually moved, but their DMV records indicated different address," Magney said.

The Elections Commission plan doesn't go far enough for Barrett.

He called on the commission to reactivate all voters dropped — erroneously or not — through the ERIC process.

But Magney said, "At this point, it is too late to move everyone (who was deactivated) back onto the poll list."

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said the 44,000 voters dropped from the rolls came after another 40,000 voters were purged because they hadn't voted in the past four years. That means the number of registered voters in the City of Milwaukee dropped from about 330,000 to 246,000 total, he said.

"That number is about the lowest our voter registration records have been in the last 50 years in the City of Milwaukee," Albrecht said.

He and Barrett warned that the errors could disproportionately affect voters from impoverished communities.

Milwaukee is not the only city that's been experiencing problems due to the errors. Dozens of active Green Bay area voters found out they had been removed from voter rolls when they went to cast ballots in the February primary.

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Barrett on Wednesday sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker urging him to help reactivate voters who were dropped from the rolls.

"The right to vote is fundamental, and exercising that right should be simple and fair," Barrett wrote.

Voters are urged to visit myvote.wi.gov or call (414) 286-CITY (2489) to check registration status. The Wisconsin Election Commission’s toll-free number for non-residents is (866) 868-3947.