Settlement Finalized in Wisconsin Voter Purge Lawsuit
MADISON — On August 17, 2022, a settlement was finalized in federal court in Wisconsin to reinstate more than 31,000 registered voters who were purged from the voter rolls in 2021. The settlement also requires the state to set up a system for protecting registered voters from unlawful removal from the rolls.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, represented by Fair Elections Center, Law Forward Inc., and Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, filed the suit in federal court in July 2021, arguing that voters were not provided notice of the potential deactivation or the deadline to take action to avoid deactivation; and therefore were unlawfully removed from the rolls. Since these voters were not notified that their registration had changed, these voters could potentially lose the opportunity to cast their ballot.
According to court documents, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reactivated the registrations of 30,554 voters of the 31,854 who had been deactivated in July 2021. The other 1,300 registrations remain deactivated for other lawful reasons.
Learn more about this case and similar litigation on voter purges at the League of Women Voters Legal Center.
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The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has been running an election observer program since 2010. Read their guest blog post on their observations from Election Day 2014.
Since 2011, Wisconsin has been one of the battlegrounds for those fighting to protect voting rights. I had the privilege of visiting Wisconsin this past weekend to do my part to help protect and educate Wisconsin voters.
The lawsuit contends that because the Legislature unconstitutionally convened the December 2018 “extraordinary session,” all business conducted during the “extraordinary session” is void and unenforceable.
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