Thread by @patrickdmarley

Here’s a thread on Wisconsin’s voter purge lawsuit.

An Ozaukee County judge ruled Friday that more than 200,000 people must be quickly removed from the rolls because they likely have moved. He said state law is clear that this must happen 30 days after notifying voters that they are believed to have moved.

jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

The ruling has sparked strong responses from both sides. Democrats are calling it a move to disenfranchise voters. Republicans say the judge is simply following a law that ensures the voter rolls are accurate.

Given how much left-leaning Twitter has lit up in the last 18 hours or so, expect Dems to be doing a lot of fundraising and AG @JoshKaulWI to be planning an appeal.

The right will likely also use the ruling (and the Dem reaction against it) to activate its base.

Here’s background on the case — why the state believes the voters have moved, why the lawsuit was filed, how people can get back on the rolls:

jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

Wisconsin Voters can see if they’re registered properly and update their registrations if they have moved at this state website:

myvote.wi.gov/en-us/

Voters can also register at their local clerk’s office or at the polls on Election Day. They will need proof of residence.

An analysis by @ericlitke and me found that the largest share of the letters went to communities that tend to vote for Democrats. Many of them went to Madison, Milwaukee and other communities with college campuses.

jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

Milwaukee and Madison account for 14% of the state's registered voters but received 23% of the letters saying they were believed to have moved.

Across the state, 55% of the letters saying voters were believed to have moved went to municipalities where @HillaryClinton out-polled @realDonaldTrump in 2016.

Here’s a great map by @ericlitke showing where the letters went and whether those are Dem or GOP communities: ericlitke.carto.com/builder/6d35ca…

And here’s a chart, also by @ericlitke, with more details on where the letters went: infogram.com/wisconsin-vote…

Some stats to keep in mind:

Of the 234,000 letters that were sent, about 60,000 were returned as undeliverable as of Dec. 5. As of then, about 2,300 recipients of the letters said they continued to live at their address and about 16,500 had registered to vote at new addresses.

The fight in this case is over voters who got the letters even though they did not move.

The list of voters was developed using info from other government agencies. If someone changed their address at the post office or registered a vehicle at a new address, they got a letter.

In some cases, the data is faulty. For instance, someone could be flagged as having moved if they registered a car at a business address.

At this stage, it is unknown how accurate the mailings were. Those who actually moved are required to change their voter registrations, regardless of the outcome of this case.

Clerks and voting rights advocates complained that a similar 2017 mailing flagged too many voters incorrectly. But those who brought the lawsuit noted the vast majority of recipients of the 2017 letters had in fact moved and that people can re-register easily.

Critics argue that no one should be kicked off the rolls because the government merely suspects they might have moved.

Presumably the next stop for this case is at an appeals court, but expect it to get to the Wisconsin Supreme Court quickly. Conservatives control the court 5-2.

.@JusticeDanKelly is up for election in April, but it’s unclear if the case would get to the Supreme Court before then. That would be very fast for a normal case but political cases have gotten to the Supreme Court quickly in recent years.

Kelly is in the conservative majority.

He faces two opponents: @Fallone4Justice and @judgekarofsky.

A February primary will narrow the field from three to two for the April general election.

And if you’re interested in knowing what happens next in this case over Wisconsin’s voter rolls, please subscribe. It’s cheap —$3 for 3 months.

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