State asks appellate court to take action on voter purge by Tuesday

MADISON -- We have an update in the Wisconsin voter purge lawsuit. The State filed late Friday, Jan. 3 a renewed motion to put on hold a circuit court judge’s order to immediately deactivate the registration of more than 200,000 voters.

Background

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), in December, sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission for failing to follow state law and deactivate the registrations of voters who were flagged as having moved.

The State argued the system that flagged voters was not reliable -- and that the mailing that notified those voters did not say they would be removed if they didn’t take any action.

The Ozaukee County judge ruled in WILL’s favor -- ordering the elections commission to immediately deactivate the flagged voters.

The State filed an appeal -- and asked the appellate court to put the Ozaukee County ruling on hold.

The appellate court has yet to hear the case.

The Elections Commission has not taken any action to update the voter rolls.

On Thursday, WILL filed a motion to hold the Elections Commission in contempt for not following the circuit court order.

The State's motion Friday asks the appellate court to stay the Ozaukee county Judge’s ruling by Tuesday, ahead of the contempt hearing. The state also filed a brief rejecting WILL’s motion to immediately move the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court

The State argues bypassing the appellate court is premature -- and that any error made by the Ozaukee County judge -- could be easily corrected by the appellate court.