Commission to send mailers to voters who may have moved

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Elections Commission has decided to send postcards to more than 100,000 voters who may have moved but won’t deactivate their registrations if they don’t respond.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that the commission on Thursday decided to send the first of three postcard mailings later this month to 103,010 voters who may have moved. The postcards will warn the voters their registrations may be deactivated if they don’t confirm their address or register at a new one. The commission will follow up with two more mailings, one in September and one in December.

The commission also will send a memo to local election clerks this summer saying it will be up to them to deactivate voters flagged as potential movers or keep them on the rolls.

Republicans on the commission wanted to direct local clerks or the commission itself to deactivate suspected movers who don’t respond. Democratic members said that would be illegal, disenfranchise voters and make it harder to vote.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in April that the commission isn’t required to deactivate voters it suspects have moved, rejecting arguments from conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. That ruling left about 70,000 voters who were flagged in 2019 as potential movers on the rolls. Around 30,000 of them will likely be deactivated in late July as part of a separate, routine procedure to clear the rolls of people who haven’t voted in the past four years.