A Big Year for Purged Voters

Vote here sign. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

It’s an interesting number — 192,369.

That’s how many voters’ names were just removed from the statewide master list of voters because they hadn’t voted in four years and they did not respond to postcards telling them how to stay on the list or their postcards were returned.

It’s an interesting number because 192,369 is the most purged voters in Wisconsin in six years. It’s also seven times the statewide winning margins of both Republican President Donald Trump (29,397 votes) and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (28,718) last November. It’s also 5.6% of all votes for president cast in Wisconsin in that election. And, if those former voters lived in one municipality, it would be Wisconsin’s third largest city.

After dropping those voters’ names, there were 3.62 million registered voters in the state as of Aug. 1, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Commission figures also show that the percentage of purged voters varied wildly in the largest counties, compared to total votes for president cast in those counties last year.

For example, the number of dropped voters in Milwaukee County was 40,974, or 8.8% of all that county’s presidential votes in November. But the number of purged voters in Waukesha County — 11,427 — was only 4.1% of that county’s presidential vote total.

How does the law that dropped those 192,369 voters work?

If you haven’t voted in four years, the state Elections Commission is required to send you a “Notice of Suspension” postcard asking if you want to remain on the statewide voter list. To stay on that list, you have 30 days to return a postcard to your local municipal clerk.

If you don’t respond, or the postcard is returned as undeliverable, the Elections Commission must remove — or “deactivate” — your name from the master list. That must be done every two years.

If your name is removed, you can still vote in the next election. “Individuals whose voter registration status is deactivated can no longer vote using [old information] and must re-register to vote at their current address,” Elections Commission officials advise.

State officials say the four-year tracking law keeps the statewide voter list accurate, which is critical in a state where elections for president, U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide offices are usually won by margins of less than 1%.

“Through the four-year maintenance process and ongoing collaboration with local election officials, we ensure that the voter registration database reflects current, eligible voters by deactivating those who have moved, passed away, or have otherwise become inactive,” Elections Administrator Meagan Wolfe said in a statement.

In June, the Elections Commission sent 202,593 postcards to registered voters with no record of voting since the 2020 presidential election. Of those voters, 9,501 mailed a returned postcard to their local clerk, saying they wanted to remain a registered voter; 50,463 others did not respond and 142,629 postcards were returned as undeliverable.

The 192,369 names purged this year was the most in four cycles. In 2023, 108,378 names were dropped; in 2021, 174,307 names; in 2019, 95,939 names.

The number of dropped voters may be rising because Wisconsin voter turnout increased by 5.8% between the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. That change is dwarfed by the 22% jump in presidential votes statewide between 2016 and 2024.

The numbers of dropped voters in the largest counties were:

-Milwaukee County: 40,974 purged voters, after 9,959 postcards were returned and there were no responses to 31,120 others. That was 8.8% of the county’s total votes of 464,107 for president last year.

-Dane County: 21,325 purged voters, after 10,383 postcards were returned and there were no responses to 10,920 others. That was 5.8% of the county’s total votes of 365,929 for president.

-Waukesha County: 11,427 purged voters, after 2,669 postcards were returned and there were no responses to 8,793 others. That was 4.1% of the county’s total votes of 275,784 for president.

-Racine County: 6,953 purged voters, after 1,283 postcards were returned and there were no responses to 3,385 others. That was 6.4% of the county’s total votes of 107,686 for president.

If you made it this far in this blizzard of numbers, here’s a prize. Wisconsin’s 3.62 million voters fall into these five age brackets: 18-25 years old, 9.7% of all voters; 25-34, 13.7%; 35-49, 22.6%; 50-64, 24.5%, and 65+, 29.5%.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.