Riley Vetterkind, @email
MADISON, WI – The Wisconsin Elections Commission announced it has deactivated 108,378 voter records through the Four-Year Maintenance process required by law.
WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the individuals who were deactivated by the WEC have not voted in the past four years and do not have a record of responding to a mailing from the agency regarding their registration status.
“The Four-Year Maintenance process helps keep our voter registration database as clean and updated as possible,” Wolfe said. “The deactivations are a combination of voters who have moved to a new address without re-registering, voters who have died, others who have asked to have their registrations deactivated, and those who simply have not voted.”
Wolfe said voters who have moved from their previous registration address can simply re-register with their new address.
Wolfe said the WEC works closely with local election officials as part of this biennial update of the statewide registration list, which is required by law.
“The Wisconsin Elections Commission and its staff take voter list maintenance very seriously,” Wolfe said. “Along with the Four-Year Maintenance effort, the WEC works continually with local election officials to help keep the registration lists current.”
2023 Four-Year Voter Record Maintenance
Wolfe said the Commission is required by law every two years to conduct voter record maintenance to identify individuals who have not voted in the previous four years and to deactivate them unless they wish to remain registered. She said the required review helps ensure the integrity of the statewide voter database. Individuals whose voter record is deactivated can no longer vote using that voter record and must re-register to vote at their current address.
In June, the Commission identified 116,051 registered voters with no record of voting since the November 2018 general election. The Commission mailed “Notice of Suspension” postcards to these voters, asking them whether they wanted to remain active on the state’s voter list. To remain active, voters had 30 days to mail a return postcard to their municipal clerk. Voters with no record of responding or whose postcard was returned as undeliverable by the Post Office were deactivated. A small number of individuals who did respond were deactivated by clerks for other reasons.
Here’s how the numbers from the 2023 Four-Year Voter Record Maintenance mailing break down:
|
Voter List Maintenance Summary Statistics |
Total |
|
Total number of notices mailed |
116,051 |
|
Number of notices that were returned requesting continuation of registration |
7,469 |
|
Number of notices that were returned as undeliverable |
30,856 |
|
Number of voters mailed a notice who requested cancellation of registration |
11 |
|
Number of voters mailed a notice who clerks determined to be deceased |
387 |
|
Number of voters mailed a notice who clerks deactivated for reasons other than being deceased or at the voter’s request |
296 |
|
Number of duplicate voter records identified and merged together |
235 |
|
Number of voters who did not respond to the notice |
77,726 |
|
Total number of voters mailed a notice whose status changed from eligible (active) to ineligible (inactive) |
108,378 |
Information about past Four-Year Voter Record Maintenance projects is available on the WEC’s website: https://elections.wi.gov/publications/reports.