Eucke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission
What's at Stake
Just weeks before Election Day, three individuals filed a lawsuit asking a court to initiate an improper purge of Milwaukee voters from the voter rolls. We moved to intervene to protect voters from being purged based on unreliable information.
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Summary
On September 30, 2024, three Wisconsin residents filed a lawsuit asking a court to compel election officials to initiate a purge of tens of thousands of Milwaukee voters from the voter rolls.
Multiple procedural defects warrant dismissal of the lawsuit. And there is also a core problem with Plaintiffs' allegations on the merits. Wisconsin election officials have no obligation to remove voters from the rolls based on information that does not reliably indicate that the voter has changed their residency. Yet the plaintiffs' claim is allegedly based on their attempt to match data from the Milwaukee active voter file with the data in the National Change of Address ("NCOA") database. Courts have repeatedly concluded that the NCOA database — which is created and maintained for the use of businesses engaged in commercial mass mailing — contains overinclusive and otherwise inaccurate data for the purpose of assessing voter eligibility.
The ACLU, ACLU of Wisconsin, and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP intervened on behalf of nonprofit organizations Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, Souls to the Polls, and WISDOM to defend voters against this improper effort to initiate a voter purge just weeks before Election Day.