Why Won’t This Swing State 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.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

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.

More From Daily Signal: