Judge Paul Malloy in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin found the state election commission and three of its members in contempt of court for failing to purge 255,000 people from its voter rolls, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The decision was made on Monday after the commission failed to follow the judge's December order to remove thousands of people from the voter rolls.
The commission will be have to pay $50 a day and Democratic commissioners Ann Jacobs, Julie Glancey and Mark Thomsen will have to pay $250 a day for each day they fail to make the purge.
Last month Malloy ordered the commission to remove voters who may have moved. Back in October, the commission sent those voters letters and gave them 30 days to respond. If they failed to respond to the letter the voters were supposed to be purged. Initially, the letter was sent to 234,000 people. At the end of 2019, a small percentage of voters respond. in fact, 209,000 voters failed to respond, the Associated Press reported.
The commission is made up of three Republicans and three Democrats. They've struggled to comply with Malloy's order because of partisan politics.
Democrats have continually said that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump because of "voter suppression." When they make these claims, they're referring to states purging old voter data and information. It's the same narrative Democrats continually ran with to explain why Stacey Abrams lost her gubernatorial race to then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
What's sad is this has become a partisan issue when it shouldn't be. Purging old voters from the rolls should be standard practice that everyone across the political spectrum wants. This ensures that actual voters are casting a ballot and people aren't taking advantage of the system. The last thing we need is more Disney characters voting for president or governor.
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