Commission planning to better track state voters
Those who may have moved will be contacted
MADISON - The Wisconsin Elections Commission will more frequently contact voters who may have moved in hopes of more easily resolving instances when people have been wrongly thought to have changed addresses.
The new approach comes as the bipartisan commission awaits a decision from the state Supreme Court that will determine whether it must quickly take voters off the rolls when it suspects them of having moved.
The state sent letters to about 232,000 voters in 2019 telling them it believed they had moved and asking them to update their voter registrations. In the nearly two years since then, the state has learned nearly 17,000 of those voters — more than 7% of those it contacted — had not moved.
In many cases, those voters were wrongly flagged as having moved
because they had registered a vehicle at a new address, according to a recent analysis of the voter list by the commission. Some voters registered their vehicles at a business address, vacation home or relative’s residence, even though they maintained the same address for voting purposes.
To try to help get on top of the situation more quickly, the commission on Tuesday unanimously approved contacting voters that are believed to have moved once every quarter instead of once every 18 months or so.
By sending out mailings more frequently, election officials would have to deal with a smaller number of voters at a time and voters would be more likely to remember recent transactions that might have raised questions about where they live.
The commission, which consists of three Democrats and three Republicans, likely won’t send a new mailing to voters believed to have moved until the state Supreme Court rules on the issue. The court’s decision is expected before July.
The lawsuit, brought by three suburban Milwaukee men with the help of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, is seeking to require the commission to quickly remove voters from the rolls after telling them it believes they may have moved.
An appeals court last year sided with the commission and the voters have remained on the rolls. The forthcoming state Supreme Court decision could change that.
Most of the voters on the 2019 list have updated their voter registrations or confirmed they did not move. About 72,000 have not said what their status is, but none in that group voted in 2020.
A recent academic paper by researchers at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University concluded that Black voters in Wisconsin were more than twice as likely as white voters to be wrongly flagged as having potentially moved. That’s at least in part because Black voters move more frequently, according to the study, which was published last month in the journal Science Advances.
While attention in recent years has focused on voters who moved, the commission this summer will inactivate the registrations of another group — those who have not voted for years.
As required by state law, the commission plans to send postcards in June to voters who have not voted in the last four years. Those receiving the postcards will have until July 15 to say they want to remain on the voter rolls. If they don’t respond, their voter registrations will be inactivated.
Wisconsin allows voters to register to vote anytime, including at the polls on election day. That means anyone who is inactivated can promptly get back on the rolls, provided they have proof of residence.
Voting in nursing homes
Also Tuesday, the commission for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began approved advising clerks to conduct voting in person in nursing homes when they can. The guidance will be in effect for the April 6 election for state schools superintendent and local offices.
State law requires municipal clerks to dispatch what are known as special voting deputies to nursing homes to help residents vote. After sending the deputies twice, the clerks can mail absentee ballots to any residents who haven’t yet voted.
Since last year, the commission has been telling clerks to mail ballots to nursing homes right away because many nursing homes sharply limited visitors during the pandemic.
Last month, a legislative committee controlled by Republicans told the commission it couldn’t tell clerks not to send the voting deputies to nursing homes because of how the law is written.
In response, the commission on a unanimous vote modified its advice Tuesday to tell clerks to contact nursing homes to find out if the voting deputies would be allowed to visit. They are to send the voting deputies to the facilities that will let them in.
For nursing homes that say they won’t allow voting deputies, the clerks are to set up two more phone calls to confirm they are sticking by that policy. Ballots will then be mailed to residents in those facilities at least two weeks before election day.