U.S. DOJ sues Wisconsin over voter roll records

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin for failing to comply with a federal law that it says requires election officials to provide access to statewide voter registration records.

The lawsuit, announced December 18 by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, names the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) as a defendant and accuses the agency of refusing to produce its full computerized voter registration list in response to a federal request.

According to the lawsuit, federal civil rights law requires the state to turn over the data to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 imposes a ‘sweeping’ obligation on election officials to ‘retain and preserve … all records and papers which come into [their] possession relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election,’” the lawsuit states, citing case law. “Title III likewise grants the attorney general the sweeping power to obtain these records.”

Wisconsin is one of three states and the District of Columbia sued in the latest round of enforcement actions. Illinois and Georgia are the other states. All totaled, the DOJ has sued 22 states. 

Three states — Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee — have capitulated and will voluntarily provide their full registration lists, pursuant to the DOJ’s request, the agency stated, bringing the number of states that are either in full compliance or in the process of compliance to 10.

The lawsuits are part of a broader DOJ effort to enforce federal voter registration and list-maintenance laws, including the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. 

“The law is clear: states need to give us this information, so we can do our duty to protect American citizens from vote dilution,” assistant attorney general Harmeet Dhillon said in announcing the lawsuit. “Today’s filings show that regardless of which party is in charge of a particular state, the Department of Justice will firmly stand on the side of election integrity and transparency.”

At the heart of the dispute with the states is the DOJ’s request for records necessary to audit the rolls for ineligible voters. The requested data includes voters’ names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and identifying information such as driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

The WEC voted 5-1 earlier this month to deny the request, citing voter privacy concerns. Commissioners appointed by both Republicans and Democrats raised objections during the discussion.

WILL findings

The lawsuit follows an investigation earlier this year by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), which identified what it described as serious concerns with WEC’s maintenance of the state’s voter registration database.

“More specifically, we showed that over 41,000 voter registration records cannot be reconciled with the data maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT),” WILL stated last week. “While this does not necessarily indicate widespread voter fraud, the issues are far too extensive for WEC to continue to ignore.”

The compiled data showed thousands of records with inconsistencies between voter registration information and DOT records, including mismatches in names and dates of birth, missing driver’s license numbers, and instances where no DOT record could be found. WILL reported that many of the discrepancies have increased since 2021.

WILL deputy counsel Lucas Vebber said the WEC has steadfastly refused to release adequate information.

“We have repeatedly stated throughout the summer that WEC’s response to questions from the DOJ, Wisconsin Legislature, and WILL have been inadequate,” Vebber said. “Make no mistake, voting record errors have only grown since 2020, and WEC has done little to nothing to reassure the public that it’s doing its job.”

One of the central issues raised by both the Justice Department and WILL concerns how Wisconsin handles paper voter registration applications, including same-day registrations.

WEC has confirmed that online voter registration applications are automatically checked against DOT records in real time, and applicants are blocked from registering if key information does not match, WILL stated. However, for paper applications submitted by mail or in person, WEC has referred to a “separate process” for verification, without providing a detailed explanation of how that process works, even though the U.S. DOJ has asked it to do so. 

In an August letter to the Justice Department written by Vebber, WILL outlined a series of follow-up questions it said remain unanswered.

“Despite your request to describe the relevant procedures, WEC does not describe the ‘separate process’ it uses for registration applications received in person or by mail,” the letter stated. “This is particularly important because, among others things, Wisconsin has same-day voter registration, meaning that voters can both register and then immediately vote on election day.”

A related question is whether paper applications are ever matched against DOT databases, when such checks occur, and what happens if discrepancies are discovered after a voter has already been registered.

“How many voters currently on the statewide voter registration list have failed the check between the voter registration list and the DOT database, meaning that the information they supplied on their registration application does not match their DOT record and yet they remain registered to vote?” Vebber asked in the letter.

In addition, the letter questioned how Wisconsin identifies and removes non-citizens from the voter rolls. 

“[The DOJ] asks about the process by which registrants who are ineligible due to non-citizenship are identified and removed from the voter registration list,” he wrote. “WEC makes no effort to respond to the question as to how noncitizens are ‘identified’ on the list because there is no process in Wisconsin for doing so.”

WILL observed that the DOT has a non-citizen database because many non-citizens are provided with state drivers’ licenses and/or state IDs, and PBS reported that nearly 300,000 residents of the state who are not U.S. citizens were issued driver’s licenses or state ID cards from the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles between 1999 and 2024.

“What steps has WEC taken to determine how many, if any, noncitizens are registered to vote?” Vebber asked. “Has WEC ever coordinated the statewide voter registration list with the DOT database, or any other state agency’s database of non-citizens?”

As for the nationwide initiative by the Justice Department, the department has sought similar information from at least 26 states. Previous states being sued include California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.