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Checking Wisconsin's Voter Rolls
The legal fight over whether Wisconsin will check the citizenship of people on its voting rolls has likely just begun.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission did not formally comment after a Waukesha County judge said the state must cross-check its voter database with the DMV’s database to make sure non-citizens are not voting, but WEC did tell reporters they expect further legal filings.
The judge on Monday said the Wisconsin Elections Commission is ignoring both state and federal laws by not cross-checking the voter list and the DMV’s list.
"[WEC is] "violating state and federal statutes by maintaining an election system that potentially allows individuals on to the voter rolls who may not be lawfully entitled to cast a vote in Wisconsin,” Judge Michael Maxwell said.
WEC has said Wisconsin law does not require anyone to actually verify voter citizenship. Instead, the Elections Commission said voters simply have to attest that they are citizens.
No one knows how many non-citizens are on Wisconsin’s voter rolls, and there are varying counts as to whether non-citizens have ever voted.
But the Elections Commission last year sent a note to local clerks that said non-citizen IDs in the state can be used as voter IDs.
Non-citizens are not supposed to vote in Wisconsin, but ultimately the responsibility to make sure they don’t is left up to local poll workers, and local election managers.
Judge Maxwell has given the Elections Commission until next February, just ahead of the spring primary, to run a cross check with the DMV.
It’s not clear how long an appeal may take, or if the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court would accept the case directly.
The ruling comes about a week after the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty suggested a similar cross-check audit of the voter rolls and DMV records as a way to “ensure the will of the voters is respected and Wisconsin’s elections remain secure.”
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