The Guardian: Rightwing group pushes Wisconsin voter purge that ‘could tip’ 2020 election

A conservative group is forcing Wisconsin to remove upwards of 230,000 people from state voter rolls more than a year earlier than planned, a move that would disproportionately affect Democrats before the 2020 election.

The group behind the lawsuit, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (known as Will), is a legal advocacy group that has backed conservative causes across the state since the beginning of the decade. Led by Rick Esenberg, Will has defended rollbacks on public sector union power, promoted charter schools, and challenged campaign finance restrictions among other issues. …

Critics say the partisan nature of Will’s case is clear. “Let’s be honest, Esenberg wouldn’t be pursuing this if it was going to decrease the number of conservative Republican voters as opposed to Democratic and progressive voters,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin. …

“They’ll wait in line and then they’ll find out that they’re not registered and then they’ll be told they have to register,” Heck said. “You’ll have people who just say ‘to hell with it’”.