League of Women Voters asks to join lawsuit that would deactivate thousands of voters

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The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin is asking a judge to allow it to join a lawsuit over removing hundreds of thousands of people from state voter rolls.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 13, alleges the Wisconsin Elections Commission broke the law when it decided to wait as long as two years to deactivate more than 234,000 Wisconsin voters who may have moved. The commission mailed notices to voters in October asking them to confirm their addresses within two years, a timeline set by a commission vote. According to the lawsuit, state law requires voters to respond within 30 days of receiving the mailing or be deactivated. The plaintiffs, three voters from Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha counties, are asking the Ozaukee County Circuit Court to enter a temporary injunction to require the commission to deactivate voters if they didn’t respond to the notices within 30 days.

On Friday, The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin asked an Ozaukee County judge to join the lawsuit as an intervening defendant to prevent the voters’ removal from state voter rolls. The group said the 234,000 letters sent in October account for 7 percent of Wisconsin’s 3.3 million registered voters. Many people on the political left are concerned young and low-income voters, who tend to vote Democratic, will be removed and won’t be able to cast ballots in the April presidential primary and November general election.

The Ozaukee County Circuit Court scheduled a hearing on the temporary injunction for Dec. 5. The League of Women Voters is asking the court to let it participate in the hearing. Follow @WLJReporter