A Waukesha County Circuit Court judge has ruled the Wisconsin Elections Commission never properly approved a national form to register voters by mail, barring its use going forward.
Judge Michael Maxwell gave the commission 14 days to withdraw any previous guidance it has given on the form and to notify local election officials it can no longer be used.
“WEC was empowered by the State Legislature to administer Wisconsin’s election laws and then directed WEC to exercise that power by prescribing the voter registration forms which are accepted for use in this State,” Maxwell wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “WEC has failed in this most basic duty by allowing the National Form to be used in Wisconsin where WEC has never actually proscribed its use.”
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the suit on behalf of a Waukesha County voter challenging use of the national registration form from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. States are generally obligated to accept the form, which can be used to register to vote, update information or register with a political party. Wisconsin is exempt from that, though, because it offers same-day registration.
WILL argued state law bars Wisconsin from allowing the form to be used. That’s because it doesn’t collect some information that WILL argues is required by state law, including residency and criminal record. The national form also asks for information such as a voter’s race that WILL argues isn’t allowed under Wisconsin law. The suit argued WEC has to engage in rulemaking to permit the inclusion of such information.
In his ruling, Maxwell declined to determine whether the national form complies with Wisconsin law because he had ruled WEC failed to lawfully prescribe its use.
Maxwell wrote in his ruling that WEC claimed a prior election agency had approved the form’s use “at some point in the past,” but failed to produce any evidence to support that claim.
WILL said it will not seek to invalidate the registrations for any voters that used the form and only sought to prevent its use going forward.
“It is unfortunate that time and time again Wisconsinites have to go to court to force state agencies to follow the law,” said WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber. “Today’s win is a tremendous victory for Wisconsinites, and sends yet another strong message to bureaucrats who disregard the rule of law.”
A WEC spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the ruling here.
