Appeals Court Blocks Voter Purge

The legal struggle over the purge of Wisconsin voters from the voter polls continues. This morning, as the Wisconsin Elections Commission was in closed session to make a decision on what to do in light of Monday's court ruling holding them in contempt for not purging the voters immediately, the appeals court blocked the contempt order and removed the fines for both the Elections Commission and the three Democratic members who have voted to not remove the voters.

This comes as multiple elections are rolling into view. There is a Feb. 18 primary for local offices, the state Supreme Court, and the 7th CD seat that is having a special election. At this point, it seems extremely unlikely that the voters will be removed from the voter rolls before that election, and indeed it seems fairly unlikely that this will happen before the November presidential election, since at this point it appears the law will go through the full appeals process, likely ending up in the state Supreme Court, which yesterday refused to hear the case before it went through the lower appeals court.