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Does Wisconsin have twice as many registered voters as active voters?

By Tom Kertscher
NO

Wisconsin has 4.27 million inactive voters and 3.66 million registered voters.

Inactive voters are not registered and are not eligible to vote unless they re-register on or before an Election Day.

Republican Eric Hovde added the numbers together in claiming Wisconsin has “almost 8 million registered voters on our voter rolls with only 3.5 million active voters.”

Hovde raised election administration questions one week after losing Nov. 5, 2024, to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin. Unofficially, Baldwin won by less than 1 percentage point.

People are made inactive when they die, move and register in another state, are convicted of a felony, are adjudicated incompetent to vote, or have their name purged.

Purging occurs every two years. The Wisconsin Election Commission is required to make registered voters inactive if they have not voted in the past four years and have not responded to a mailing about their registration status.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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