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{"source_url": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com", "url": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2019/12/31/elections-panel-deadlocks-again-on-voting-list-purge/", "title": "Elections Panel Deadlocks Again on Voting List Purge", "top_image": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/IMG_6215-1024x768.jpg", "meta_img": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/IMG_6215-1024x768.jpg", "images": ["https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/um_store_map.png", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/icons/facebook-64.png", "https://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-d8Fh9eDru8-7x.gif", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/partners/wpr.jpg", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/icons/reddit-64.png", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/icons/linkedin-64.png", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/IMG_6215-1024x768.jpg", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/icons/twitter-64.png", "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/urbanmilwaukee-logo.png"], "movies": [], "text": "Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee\n\nThe Wisconsin Elections Commission deadlocked again Monday on what to do next after a circuit court judge ordered the state to purge more than 200,000 names from Wisconsin\u2019s voter registration list.\n\nIt\u2019s the second time in less than a month that the commission, which is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, has been unable to agree on how to address the court order by a circuit court judge.\n\nThat original order has since been appealed and a new lawsuit has been filed in federal court attempting to block it.\n\nElections Commissioner Mark Thomsen, one of the panel\u2019s Democrats, said those lawsuits should be allowed to play out before the voting rolls are changed.\n\n\u201cIt would seem to me premature and wrongheaded for the commission to jump ahead,\u201d Thompson said\n\nEarlier this month, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty , known as WILL. They argued that the Wisconsin Elections Commission was violating state law by not removing thousands of people from voting rolls who were suspected to have moved.\n\nThe voters were identified by what\u2019s known as the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonprofit, multi-state system that helps member states keep their voter registration lists current. ERIC identifies people who may have moved after they file official paperwork with another government agency like the Department of Motor Vehicles.\n\nThe Elections Commission voted earlier this year to send a mailing to more than 230,000 voters stating that they\u2019d been flagged as having moved. But the commission\u2019s original mailing also told voters that they would not be automatically removed from the state\u2019s registration rolls until 2021.\n\nAt the time, the Elections Commission argued that state law gave it discretion on whether to immediately rescind a voter\u2019s registration. It said that discretion was necessary given the state\u2019s previous experiences with the ERIC system in 2017, when voters who had not moved were mistakenly tossed off the rolls.\n\nMalloy rejected that argument, ruling on Dec. 13 that the state must remove the names from Wisconsin\u2019s voter rolls immediately.\n\nWisconsin\u2019s Elections Commission met just days later, voting 3-3 on Dec. 16 on a motion that would have immediately purged the state\u2019s voter rolls. With the commission\u2019s even split, a bipartisan vote is required to accomplish anything.\n\nThe Wisconsin Department of Justice, led by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, appealed the initial ruling in state court, and WILL asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly.\n\nAt the same time, the Wisconsin League of Women Voters filed a new lawsuit in federal court in an attempt to block the initial ruling.\n\nRepublican Dean Knudson, a former GOP state lawmaker who chairs the Elections Commission, said Monday that he felt it was important for the commission to take action following the court order by Malloy.\n\n\u201cWe are under a court order from the circuit court in Ozaukee County to follow the law,\u201d Knudson said. \u201cI wish the law was clearer. But I feel like we need to do our best to follow the law.\u201d\n\nBut the commission\u2019s Democrats, like Ann Jacobs, said the system used to flag voter names was flawed and it was unclear if the state even had the authority to remove people.\n\n\u201cThe right to vote is of such power that the idea that we\u2019re going to simply kick people off the rolls because of a poor data match is astonishing,\u201d Jacobs said.\n\nThe case is being closely watched because of Wisconsin\u2019s potentially pivotal role in the 2020 election and its recent history of close finishes.\n\nFor example, the 2019 Wisconsin Supreme Court race and the 2016 race for president were both decided by margins of less than 1 percent, and the 2018 race for governor was decided by just over 1 percent.\n\nState Election Panel Deadlocks Again On How To Address Ruling On Voter List Purge was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["Shawn Johnson"], "publish_date": "Tue Dec 31 00:00:00 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "While court decision ordering purge appealed, state elections commission\u2019s members evenly divided by party.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/themes/urbanmilwaukee_responsive/images/um_favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1", "description": "While court decision ordering purge appealed, state elections commission\u2019s members evenly divided by party.", "author": "Shawn Johnson", "fb": {"app_id": 142344658820}, "og": {"site_name": "Urban Milwaukee", "description": "While court decision ordering purge appealed, state elections commission\u2019s members evenly divided by party.", "title": "Elections Panel Deadlocks Again on Voting List Purge", "url": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2019/12/31/elections-panel-deadlocks-again-on-voting-list-purge/", "image": {"identifier": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/IMG_6215-1024x768.jpg", "width": 1024, "height": 768}, "type": "article"}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "site": "@urbanmilwaukee"}, "tec-api-version": "v1", "tec-api-origin": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com"}, "canonical_link": "https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2019/12/31/elections-panel-deadlocks-again-on-voting-list-purge/"} |
