Politifact Says Nancy Pelosi's Wisconsin Voter Claim Is A Lie

MILWAUKEE, WI — Up to 230,000 voters currently on Wisconsin's voter rolls are a bone of contention between state officials who say they should stay until 2021, and a conservative watchdog group who says they should be removed as soon as possible.

The conflict drew the attention of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's political team. In December, Pelosi's political team tweeted about the issue brewing in Wisconsin — albeit in an inaccurate way, according to multiple reports.

In Pelosi's tweet, her team stated that "It’s beyond alarming that more than 200,000 registered Wisconsin voters will be prohibited from voting. Less than a year from the election, we must ensure @WisDems have the resources to respond with a massive voter registration effort. Don’t agonize. Organize!"

To date, the tweet has elicited about 6,900 likes and nearly 600 comments, but when her team's claims were scrutinized by Politifact - a popular fact-checking group, the claims quickly fell apart.

"That’s a major overstatement of how this actually works," Politifact stated. "Yes, the pruning process, if allowed by the courts, could potentially remove more than 200,000 people from the voting rolls before the upcoming elections. But there is no punitive element that would ban future voting. Everyone can re-register, even on Election Day."

They gave Pelosi's claims a "Pants On Fire" rating.

Previously, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a lawsuit in Ozaukee County Circuit Court, claiming the Wisconsin Election Commission would violate state election laws if they failed remove residents from state voter rolls if residents fail to update their information within 30 days of moving. The other side has filed a counter-suit in federal court, saying an imminent purge violates their constitutional right to due process.

If the Institute wins their lawsuit, the result could mean that about 230,000 Wisconsin residents will be purged from state voter rolls. Anyone who was purged would have to re-register before they could vote again.

The voter purge list in Wisconsin touches nearly every community.

In the City of Milwaukee, for example, there are 35,529 residents who are currently among the roughly 230,000 voters who face being kicked off Wisconsin's registered voter rolls. The 35,529 figure amounts to one out of every 8.3 registered voters in the City of Milwaukee.

Am I On The List?

According to the Wisconsin Election Commission, residents can check whether they're registered to vote, or whether they've been sent a "moving" letter on MyVote Wisconsin Click this link to go to MyVote Wisconsin. If state election officials sent you a letter because you may have moved, that will be noted on your voter information page on MyVote.

If you did not move, you can tell us you still have the same address. If you did move, you can re-register to vote on the MyVote website, assuming your address information is current with DMV. If it's not current, you can update it with DMV and come back to MyVote and register online, election officials said.

Here is what it looks like on MyVote Wisconsin when you check your voter registration information. Reid Magney, Public Information Officer with the Wisconsin Elections Commission told Patch that most of the people on the list have moved, and do need to re-register.

However, there is a small percentage of people who have not moved, but they had a transaction with DMV that makes it look like they may have moved, he said. Registering a vehicle at an address which is different from their home address is the most common reason.