WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Statistics show about 1 out of every 12 voters in Wausau may have their registration canceled if courts rule in favor of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty in the battle over purging the poll books.
The Wausau Pilot and Review reports that of the 19,500 registration update notices sent to Wausau voters, around 1,500 have not been returned.
The fight is over postcards that were recently mailed to inactive voters, asking them to update their address within 30 days or risk being removed from the records. Those cards were mailed in the fall of 2019, however, the Elections Commission has not removed those who did not respond.
WILL is suing the non-partisan State Elections Commission to scrub those records to ensure future elections are accurate. But the Commission wants to wait until 2021 to update those records, citing a glitch that caused thousands to accidentally be removed from the polls in 2017.
Some have argued that if voters find out their registration was canceled on election day, they can still easily register at the polls with their new address.
Statewide, around 209,000 voters could be removed if the courts side with WILL.
