Wisconsin Public Radio

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit That Attempted To Toss 143,000 Wisconsin Voter Registrations

Former Trump attorney sued to block voters with mismatched USPS data.

By , Wisconsin Public Radio - Oct 30th, 2024 12:26 pm
Vote here sign outside a Milwaukee polling place. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Vote here sign outside a Milwaukee polling place. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A lawsuit seeking last-minute changes to Wisconsin’s voter registration list has been dismissed by a Milwaukee County judge. The challenge, filed weeks before election day, alleged more than 140,000 people on the voter rolls no longer reside at the addresses they listed while registering to vote.

The suit was filed Sept. 30 by attorney Dan Eastman on behalf of three Milwaukee residents. Eastman was one of the lawyers involved in failed 2020 lawsuit attempting to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in Wisconsin.

In the suit filed last month, the plaintiffs claimed 143,742 people listed as active on Wisconsin’s registration list “appear to be invalid” based on cross references with U.S. Postal Service data. Of those, the suit alleges 56,336 “anomalous registrations” are in Milwaukee.

Eastman was seeking a court order forcing the Milwaukee Election Commission and Wisconsin Elections Commission to contact each of the individuals and deactivate the voter registrations of anyone who did not respond within 30 days.

On Oct. 22, the Milwaukee Elections Commission filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The commission argued the plaintiffs should have first filed their complaint with the state elections commission.

In response, the plaintiffs argued the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that complaints don’t need to be filed with the state elections commission before litigation is filed.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Witkowiak dismissed Eastman’s suit Monday.

Listen to the WPR report

Milwaukee judge dismisses lawsuit challenging more than 140,000 voter registrations was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

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Comments

  1. lccfccoop2 says:

    What basis did Witkowiak cite for dismissal?

  2. TosaGramps1315 says:

    A. How is Eastman still practicing law?
    2. Is there an entity that is keeping a tally of current and future lawsuits by ReTrumplicans, along with their outcomes?

    I have a lawsuit pool, and I would rather not reinvent the wheel trying to keep track of frivolous, democracy-killing attempts to override the rights and the will of voters via lawsuit by the fascist wing of the country if I don’t have to.

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