Voters upset after discovering they were removed from voter rolls

GREEN BAY – Dozens of active Green Bay area voters went to cast their ballot in Tuesday’s primary election only to find they had been removed from voter rolls.

Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney attributed some problems voters experienced on Tuesday to a multistate electronic tracking system the state started using in 2016 to update its statewide voter rolls.

He said the system sent postcards in November to close to 400,000 voters the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, identified as people who moved and would need to either confirm their details or register with updated information.

“When somebody tells the Social Security office or DMV or the Post Office that they have a new address, then ERIC looks at that and other criteria to determine whether or not they think someone has moved,” Magney said. “Some voters reporting problems Tuesday were declared inactive after failing to respond to a postcard they received asking them if they were still an active voter (residing there.)”

WEC records indicate it sent 14,279 postcards to Brown County residents in November, 9,990 to Outagamie County residents, 69,974 to Milwaukee County residents and 10,530 to Winnebago County residents.

Voters who told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin they were not on voter rolls Tuesday morning said they were able to provide proper documentation to register and cast a ballot.

Still, the extra 20 minutes to register on-site or additional trips home to get the necessary information made it a hassle to vote, they said.

Noah Reif, a voter on Green Bay's east side, said poll workers refused to accept an electronic copy of proof of residency and directed him to re-register after he made two trips home to find a pay stub poll workers would accept as proof of residence. Magney said electronic copies of proof of residency forms should have been accepted.

“Ultimately it’s a hell of a lot of hoops to jump through to vote. I am lucky that I had some time to get it taken care of this morning, but there are plenty of people who would not have had the time or patience for it and honestly I don’t blame them,” Reif said. “If the local and state government actually cared one bit about the people they claim to represent, they would be fighting to make it easier to get to ballot box, not more difficult.”

Green Bay resident Desiree May said she did not recall receiving a postcard from the state. She was able to activate her registration after about 20 minutes. She posted about her experience on Facebook and found more than a dozen neighbors had similar experiences as well as friends in Milwaukee, Wausau and Sun Prairie.

“I understand someone’s name could go missing (from the rolls by mistake), but this is a concerning thing. … It should be easier to cast a ballot than this, especially for a spring primary where turnout won’t be that big anyway,” May said.

Magney said WEC will refine the criteria ERIC uses to identify voters to remove from active rolls prior to 2019, the next year that the agency will review the state's voter rolls.

On Tuesday, WEC asked voters who experienced a registration issue to contact the commission at 1-866-VOTE-WIS (1-866-868-3947) or by email at elections@wi.gov to help the agency identify what happened and resolve the issue.

“We apologize if people were incorrectly removed from the active list. We apologize for any inconvenience it caused them,” Magney said. “This was the first ERIC mailing that we’ve done. Based on our experience with this, the next time we’d do it, in 2019, we’re going to work with ERIC to refine the criteria.”

He added that some callers who complained to WEC accused the commission of executing a purge of voter rolls based on political preferences. He said it was a bipartisan problem.

“In some of the phone calls, it was suggested this is an effort to disenfranchise Republicans or Democrats,” Magney said. “When you register to vote, you don’t register by party. We don’t keep track of which party’s primary you vote in. We have no idea what political preference is for any individual voter based on WEC records. We have no way of knowing (political affiliations) and have no interest in disenfranchising anyone.”

Magney said voters concerned about their status can check the state’s My Vote website, myvote.wi.gov, or contact their local clerk or register at the polls on Election Day.

Brown County Clerk Sandy Juno said Wisconsin’s same-day voter registration ensures that anyone taken off the poll list can still cast a ballot on Election Day.

“This is the first I’ve actually heard of it. In other states, this tends to be more of an issue, but since we have election day voter registration, it serves as a protection,” Juno said. “In other states, they would not be able to vote. Wisconsin has good laws in that regard to protect the elector who didn’t get a card or didn’t respond.”