Voter Registration Rolls In Battleground State Have Over 41,000 Discrepancies
Election-integrity groups are pressing Wisconsin officials for answers after newly uncovered data revealed more than 41,000 voter registrations that don’t align with the state’s driver and ID database — nearly double the number flagged during the last presidential election.
The findings, released by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), have reignited concerns over the state’s voter-verification system just months before the 2024 election.
“In a suspicious development, it’s been exposed that a whopping 41,000 Wisconsin voters’ registration files do NOT match the driver and ID database… nearly DOUBLE from 2020,” the organization stated.
According to WILL’s breakdown, 11,174 active voter registrations are missing driver’s license numbers — nearly three times the total in 2020. Another 24,733 registrations contain name discrepancies, while 680 records show mismatched names and birthdates. An additional 2,069 registrations could not be matched in the system at all.
While the total represents roughly 1.1% of the state’s active voter roll, the margin is significant in a state where elections are often decided by a few thousand votes. Joe Biden carried Wisconsin in 2020 by just over 20,000 votes — while President Donald J. Trump reclaimed the state last year by a razor-thin 0.9% margin.
WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber cautioned against assuming fraud but said the sheer number of discrepancies demands transparency.
“We’re not in any way saying that these 40,000 votes were fraudulent votes,” Vebber explained. “We don’t know that… But our point in the letter is just saying this is serious enough that questions need to be answered and we need a little more transparency here from the government.”
One area of concern is the unequal verification process between online and paper registrations. Online registrations are automatically cross-checked with the Department of Transportation database — but paper forms, including those filled out on Election Day, go through a far less transparent process.
“If you register to vote online… they will instantly check that number against the DOT database,” Vebber said. “If anything’s inaccurate, they will not allow you to register to vote. If you submit a paper application… WEC won’t tell us what process they used to verify the information.”
A Waukesha County judge recently ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to verify all voter information against transportation records, but that ruling has been paused pending appeal, leaving thousands of questionable registrations unresolved.
Lawmakers have also demanded answers, but WEC’s silence has fueled public skepticism in a state already scarred by controversial elections and record-high turnout.
“What are they doing to ensure the integrity of our voter registration list?” Vebber asked. “If they have this information, then they are aware of this discrepancy. What are they doing with it? We’d like to know.”
WEC claims that online voter registrations are automatically rejected if details like a name, birthdate, or license number don’t match state records — but offered little explanation for how paper applications are verified, saying only that “they go through a separate process.”
With election integrity once again taking center stage, watchdogs warn that Wisconsin’s unresolved discrepancies could erode public trust unless state officials take immediate action to clean up the rolls and restore transparency.