Wisconsin court overturns ruling ordering purge of voter rolls

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin appeals court Friday overturned a ruling that ordered the removal of up to 209,000 people from the state’s voter rolls, handing Democrats a victory in a case they said was intended to make it more difficult for their voters to cast ballots in November.

The conservative group that brought the case said it would appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The appeals court last month put the ruling, and the purge, on hold while it considered the case. The 4th District Court of Appeals ruling overturned the decision of an Ozaukee County judge who had initially ruled in favor of a conservative law firm that was seeking the purge.

The appeals court also vacated an order from the same judge that found the state Elections Commission in contempt for not moving forward with the purge.

The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court and ordered that it be dismissed.

The case has received a lot of attention because Wisconsin is among a group of swing states being targeted by Democrats and President Donald Trump this year. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes, putting even more of a focus on every voter in the state.

The voter purge lawsuit argued that the state Elections Commission broke the law when it did not remove voters from the rolls who did not respond within 30 days to a mailing in October indicating they may have moved. The commission wanted to wait until after the November 2020 presidential election before removing anyone because of inaccuracies found while previously attempting to identify voters who may have moved.

The appeals court said in its unanimous decision that the law in question does not refer to the Elections Commission or give any duties to it related to deactivating voters. The commission had argued that the power to do that rests with local election clerks, and the appeals court agreed.

Attorney General Josh Kaul called the decision “a win not only for the Wisconsinites who were nearly purged from the voter rolls, but also for our democracy.”

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which brought the case on behalf of three voters, said it would appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

“Wisconsin deserves clean elections in 2020,” said Rick Esenberg, the group’s president.

“A win not only for the Wisconsinites ... but also for our democracy.” — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul