Sen. Ron Johnson: Why Won’t Wisconsin Clear 4 Million Ineligible Names From Voter Rolls?

One of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds in this fall’s presidential race won’t remove more than 4 million ineligible names from its voter rolls. 

“Wisconsin’s population is a little less than 6 million, with 3.5 million active voters,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told The Daily Signal in a written statement. “So why do election officials refuse to clean up Wisconsin’s voter rolls and [instead] allow up to 4.1 million inactive voters to remain, with the potential for fraudulently using those names?”

Although Johnson and some other lawmakers contend that unpruned voter rolls create election security holes, the Wisconsin Elections Commission contends that it ensures proper recordkeeping and prevents fraud. 

A website of the Wisconsin Elections Commission called Badger Voters numbers “all voters” in the state at 7.7 million. That’s a total of 3.5 million active voters and 4.19 million inactive voters. 

Voters listed as “inactive” aren’t eligible to vote in Wisconsin. Residents who haven’t voted for four years and failed to respond to repeated notices from election officials are moved to the inactive list. 

But Wisconsin keeps the names on the voter rolls, in contrast to many other states that delete ineligible names. If ineligible names were just deleted, the Wisconsin Elections Commission contends, “There would be no registration history, no participation history, and most importantly, no history of why a record became ineligible.”  

But lawmakers contend that keeping the ineligible names on the rolls creates vulnerabilities. 

Earlier this year, the former deputy director of the Milwaukee County Election Commission was sentenced to one year of probation and a $3,000 fine after she was convicted of charges in October 2022 that she obtained three absentee ballots and used fake names and Social Security numbers, The Associated Press reported. 

The criminal complaint said she used her work-issued computer to obtain three military absentee ballots using fake names and Social Security numbers. Claiming she was trying to make a point,  she sent the phony ballots to a Republican state representative.

“In Milwaukee County, an election official created voters but the Wisconsin Elections Commission says they have to keep those names on their list as inactive for metadata with an explanation of why they are inactive,” state Rep. Scott Krug, chairman of the House Campaign and Elections Committee, told The Daily Signal. “They aren’t even real people, but the WEC won’t take anyone off the voter rolls.”

Krug said state courts have sided with the election commission in the past.

“There has been a conflict over this for a few years about whether we as legislators can order the ineligible names to be removed,” Krug said. “Courts have said we cannot force the removal and it is at the discretion of the WEC.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission referred The Daily Signal to its previous statements on the matter. 

“There are two big reasons to retain the records of inactive, or ineligible, voters. First and foremost is that the law requires it. The retention of public records is essential to the maintenance of an open and transparent government,” the commission’s website says. 

The commission says the second reason is that “to retain ineligible voter records is to safeguard against fraud.”

“The retention of voter history does not make it any easier to commit election fraud. It is no more difficult or easy to change a voter record than it is to create one from scratch. Instead, the retention of historical data helps to safeguard against abuse of the system,” the Wisconsin Elections Commission contends. “If ineligible records were destroyed, the state of Wisconsin would have no voting history. There would be no registration history, no participation history, and most importantly, no history of why a record became ineligible.”  

The Associated Press has noted that if a voter’s address has changed, “Wisconsin voters can register online, by mail, in person at their local clerk’s office, or at the polls on the day of an election.”

The state has strong voter ID laws, which could counter these electron threats, noted Annette Olson, CEO of MacIver Institute, a Wisconsin think tank.

“The Wisconsin Elections Commission will not remove any of those names,” Olson told The Daily Signal. “There are people who are made up that are still on the voter rolls. They are not real. … As long as the [election] clerks enforce the voter ID laws, we should be in good hands.”

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