The WEC has more than 2.8 million ineligible voters on its registration list
By John Ellis | November 1, 2023
As of this writing, the statewide voter registration list maintained by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) includes 7,498,167 voters. But according to the 2020 United States Census, there are only 4,612,300 adults living in Wisconsin. This means that there are 2,885,867 more voters on the WEC’s registration list, than there are people of voting age living in Wisconsin. * This has made elections in Wisconsin unverifiable and is the most important problem that must be corrected before our 2024 elections.
How it happened.
In 2016, former Governor Scott Walker signed legislation that required Wisconsin to join the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). ERIC is an organization formed in 2012 and made up of election officials from 24 states around the country. The WEC has been using ERIC to maintain a statewide voter registration list. Because a major part of ERIC’s mission is voter registration, and the WEC has not been held accountable by Wisconsin legislators, that list has grown to almost 7.5 million voters.
How the WEC hides total registered voters.
The WEC maintains two websites. The website everyone is directed to for information on Wisconsin elections is called “Wisconsin Elections Commission” (elections.wi.gov). There, by clicking on the heading of “Statistics & Data”, and then “Voter Registration Statistics”, you will find WEC reports for the number of active registered voters on a monthly basis. When On Wisconsin Outdoors (OWO) did this we found the WEC reporting that on September 1, Wisconsin had only 3,469,637 active registered voters.
The second website, that very few people know about, is called “Badger Voters” (badgervoters.wi.gov). There, you can make a request for the total number voters on the WEC’s registration list by clicking on the “Create New Request” button at the top of the page. After doing that, you can make three different requests from a dropdown menu for “Voter Status”, including “active”, “inactive”, or “all” voters. By selecting “all” and pushing the “Get Estimate” button at the bottom of the page, you will find the total number of voters on the WEC’s list. When OWO did this, we found the WEC actually had 7,498,167 registered voters on its list. **
How the WEC hides ineligible voters.
The WEC uses the words activeand inactive to hide what are in fact ineligible voters. This has enabled them to keep ineligible voters out of sight, and on their list, when there’s no legitimate reason for them to be there.
Active voters are simply people who vote regularly, while inactive voters are people who have not voted in two consecutive general elections. But ineligible voters are people who can’t vote because they have died, moved out of Wisconsin, been convicted of a felony, or been found mentally incompetent to vote. All of the 2,885,867 voters on the WEC’s registration list, exceeding the number of voting age people living in Wisconsin, are ineligible voters. ***
Why this is the most important problem that must be corrected before the 2024 elections.
As long as the more than 2.8 million ineligible voters remain on the WEC’s registration list, they will provide a vast reservoir from which illegal ballots can be cast and Wisconsin will continue to have unverifiable elections. The need to correct this is obvious and time critical, because voter registration lists must be finalized 90 days before an election.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (608-237-9163), Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (608-266-2056), and Brian Schimming, Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin (608-257-4765) all know about this, but they have remained silent on the issue. If we allow it, they will remain silent through next year’s elections. We can’t let that happen. It’s extremely important that you contact them, as well as your state assemblyman and senator, to demand they make removing all ineligible voters from the WEC’s registration list their first priority. ****
Nothing is more important than making sure Wisconsin has verifiable elections in 2024, and the most important step toward having them, is removing all ineligible voters from the WEC’s list. Please make your calls, stay involved, and share this article with everyone you can.
*The math is simple. 7,498,167 is the number of voters on the WEC’s voter registration list. 4,612,300 is the number of adults living in Wisconsin. 7,498,167 – 4,612,300 = 2,885,867 more voters on the WEC’s registration list than there are people of voting age living in Wisconsin.
**If On Wisconsin Outdoors wanted a copy of the list, the WEC would charge us $12,500,00.
***They are all ineligible voters because they exceed the number of voting age people living in Wisconsin. There are actually more than 2,885,867 ineligible voters on the WEC’s registration list, and it’s easily proven with math. 7,498,167 – 2,885,867 = 4,612,300 adults living in Wisconsin. Because it’s not possible for 100% of adults living in Wisconsin to be both registered and eligible to vote, we know there are more than 2,885,867 ineligible voters on the WEC’s list.
****To find out how to contact your state legislators, go to legis.wisconsin.gov.