Wisconsin appeals court lets purge of voter rolls stand for now

Patrick Marley , Molly Beck | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - An appeals court Wednesday let stand — for now — an order that more than 200,000 people be removed from Wisconsin's voter rolls because they may have moved.

In a two-page order, the Court of Appeals rejected a request to immediately block a decision by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy to quickly take the voters off the rolls.

Instead, the court said it wanted to hear from those who brought the lawsuit and gave them a Monday deadline to submit a filing.

At issue is the voting status of thousands of people who election officials believe might have moved because they filed changes of address at the post office, registered vehicles at new addresses or provided new addresses to other government agencies.

The state sent letters to about 234,000 people in October asking them to update their voter registration or confirm they were still at the same address. The Wisconsin Elections Commission planned to remove people from the rolls in 2021 if they didn't take action before then.

But three voters represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sued, arguing the state must take people off the rolls much more quickly.

Malloy determined Friday that state law required the commission to remove people from the voter rolls 30 days after notifying them they were believed to have moved. He ordered the purging of the voter rolls.

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The Elections Commission appealed, and the Madison-based District 4 Court of Appeals is set to consider the issue over the coming weeks. In its ruling Wednesday, it said it was expediting the case but did not want to rule before hearing from those who brought the lawsuit.

The decision was issued by Judges Michael Fitzpatrick, JoAnne Kloppenburg and Jennifer Nashold. No dissents were noted.

Separately, the liberal League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court to try to prevent people from being quickly taken off the rolls. That could set up a tussle over whether state or federal courts decide the matter.

Of the 234,000 letters that were sent, about 60,000 were returned as undeliverable as of Dec. 5, according to the Elections Commission. As of then, about 2,300 recipients of the letters said they continued to live at their address and about 16,500 had registered to vote at new addresses.

That means more than 200,000 could come off the rolls under Malloy's order. Those who have registered at new addresses are not at risk of being taken off the rolls.

Anyone removed from the rolls will have to re-register before they can vote. They can do that online at myvote.wi.gov, at their clerk's office or at the polls on Election Day. They will need to provide proof of residence, such as a driver's license, property tax bill, utility bill, bank statement, paycheck stub, lease or workplace ID.

To register or re-register online, people need to have a Wisconsin driver's license or state ID card and their correct address must be on file with the state Division of Motor Vehicles. Other voters can start the registration or re-registration process online, but must complete it through the mail.

The episode is not the first time state and local elections officials have grappled with figuring out whether voters who haven't moved are being removed from voter rolls unnecessarily.

In 2017, about 44,000 Milwaukee voters were dropped from the rolls. But the Elections Commission later agreed to allow local clerks to reinstate the voter registrations of some of them and about 21,000 in Milwaukee were put back on the rolls.

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said Wednesday the city was one of the first municipalities to come forward and express concern about the reliability of the data that was used to deactivate voter registrations.

"Over the course of the 2018 elections, we identified thousands of documented instances where voters in the city had been erroneously identified as having moved," he said.

Albrecht said the city commission is again reviewing the reliability of the voter data. He said many of the people across the state who have said they have not moved live in Milwaukee.

Stevens Point City Clerk Paul Piotrowski said in a statement that of the 1,600 people who received the October mailing, the city received 500 responses and 10% had not moved.

He told the Stevens Point Journal the clerk’s office identified several people who had recently come in to register to vote in Stevens Point before the October mailing and then were subject to that mailing.

Piotrowski said deactivating registrations creates additional issues on Election Day because the clerk's office has to re-register people who shouldn’t have been removed and enter that information into the state’s voter database on a busy day.

“Adding a large number of people who need to re-register on Election Day is problematic for any clerk’s office,” he said.

In Sheboygan, the state sent notices to 1,733 registered voters there and 1,055 didn't respond.

Among those who did reply, 18 people said they hadn't moved while 131 said they had moved and registered at a new address, according to the city clerk.

Marshfield City Clerk Deborah Hall said from the 779 notices sent to residents there, 12 responded saying they were still living at their address while many were returned as undeliverable.

In Fond du Lac, 33% of the 1,513 mailed notices came back as undeliverable and just 10 people responded asking to stay on the voter rolls because they had not moved.

Diana Dombrowski of the Sheboygan Press, Alan Hovorka of the Stevens Point Journal, Sarah Razner of the Fond du Lac Reporter and Melissa Siegler of the Marshfield News-Herald contributed to this report.