Eucke v. WEC

Part of a nationwide trend, the plaintiffs in Eucke v. WEC attempted to purge Milwaukee’s voter rolls after voting had already begun in the November 2024 election. Claiming to have “evidence” that 150,000 Milwaukee voters may have moved, the Eucke plaintiffs sought a writ of mandamus to force the City of Milwaukee Election Commission (MEC), or the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to mail each of these voters a postcard requesting confirmation of residence. And for any individual from whom no response was received within 30 days, the Plaintiffs requested that their registration be rendered “ineligible.” This was a particularly stark request, given that the suit itself was filed only 36 days before election day.

They type of 11th hour interference with voter rolls posed obvious and extreme risks. There was no time to adequately vet the Plaintiffs’ “proof,” and there would be no time to resolve any errors in the remedy they sought. If someone was baselessly rendered “inactive,” they would likely find out on election day, at their polling location, with little to no time remaining to re-register and vote.

So, only nine days after the suit was filed, Law Forward, along with co-counsel the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, filed an amicus brief on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State Conference of the NAACP. The brief described how both state and federal law encourage caution in voter roll maintenance on the eve of an election—after all, nothing less than the right to vote is at stake. On October 28th, the case was dismissed.