Jan 14, 2020

Wisconsin appeals court blocks order to purge 200,000 voters from election rolls

Ursula Perano

A welcome to Wisconsin sign — Photo: VisionsofAmerica/Joe Sohm/Getty Images

A Wisconsin appeals court on Tuesday blocked a judge's decision to immediately purge as many as 209,000 names from the state's voter registration rolls, the AP reports.

Why it matters: The ruling "effectively hit the pause button on the fast-moving case and means there will be no immediate change to the state’s voter registration rolls," AP notes. The ruling is considered a win for Democrats who are hoping to take back the battleground state in the 2020 elections. Candidate Donald Trump in 2016 carried Wisconsin by less than 23,000 votes, per the New York Times.

The lawsuit — brought by a conservative law group — argued the state elections commission broke the law by keeping the names of voters who failed to respond within 30 days to a mailer asking whether they'd moved. It further suggested the purge was necessary to guarantee election integrity and maintain an accurate voter list, the Times writes.
"Because voters who moved were concentrated in more Democratic parts of the state, liberals argued that the lawsuit was meant to lower turnout on their side," the AP reports.

Go deeper: Judge authorizes purge of 300,000 from Georgia voter rolls

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Wisconsin appeals court blocks order to purge 200,000 voters from election rolls

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