A very partisan battle is being fought in Wisconsin over whether or not to purge 200,000 voters from the rolls just before the 2020 election.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the fight is currently in the hands of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The body is deadlocked as the three Democrats have blocked the three Republicans from removing voters from the rolls. The voters in dispute will remain active while an appeal is ongoing.
These voters were initially listed in an October letter from the Wisconsin Elections Commission as having potentially changed addresses. They would have been purged in 2021 but for a lawsuit from the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty that argued the date should be pushed up to before the 2020 election.
Earlier this month, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy, appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, agreed with that opinion. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul asked the District 4 court of appeals to review the case. Meanwhile, those who brought the initial lawsuit are trying to get the state Supreme Court, with its Republican majority, to take up the case before the appeals court makes a decision.
Meanwhile, the League of Women voters is suing the commission in federal court in an attempt to keep the voters registered for 2020.
Those votes could be hugely significant for the upcoming presidential election. In 2016, President Donald Trump won the state and its 10 electoral votes by fewer than 23,000 votes.
