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Did Wisconsin Turnout Exceed the Number of Registered Voters?
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The Dispatch Fact Check

Did Wisconsin Turnout Exceed the Number of Registered Voters?

No.

Khaya Himmelman
Nov 5, 2020
29
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Did Wisconsin Turnout Exceed the Number of Registered Voters?
factcheck.thedispatch.com

A number of posts on social media have been claiming the number of votes in Wisconsin exceeds the number of registered voters. One widely circulated Facebook post has the following caption:

“BREAKING: Wisconsin has more votes than people who are registered to vote. Total number of registered voters: 3,129,000 Total number of votes cast: 3,239,920 This is direct evidence of fraud.”

This claim is false. 

The number 3,129,000 comes from reported voting and registration data from the 2018 midterm election. 

According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, as of November 1, Wisconsin has 3,684,726 registered voters in the state. In a tweet posted Wednesday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission addressed these false claims and also noted that because voters are allowed to register to vote on Election Day in Wisconsin, the number of registered voters reported by certain counties are not a true reflection of registration.

Twitter avatar for @WI_ElectionsWisconsin Elections @WI_Elections
The State of Wisconsin had 3,684,726 active registered voters on November 1, 2020. Wisconsin has election day registration, which means that the VR numbers some counties report in their unofficial results are not a true indictor of registration.
Voter Registration Statistics | Wisconsin Elections Commissionelections.wi.gov

November 4th 2020

501 Retweets1,308 Likes

This tweet thread by Craig Gilbert, the Washington bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, explains the voter registration numbers further. He describes voter turnout as “high” but not a record in a subsequent tweet.

Twitter avatar for @WisVoterCraig Gilbert @WisVoter
Some on Twitter and elsewhere getting hung up on whether turnout in WI was suspiciously high (almost 3.3M) given number of reg. voters on Nov. 1 (3.7K). But WI has election-registration, and historically 300-500K register on el. day. So nothing crazy about WI turnout 1/3

November 5th 2020

535 Retweets2,991 Likes

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 U.S. Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here for more.

Photograph of Wisconsin voters by Sara Stathas/Washington Post/Getty Images.

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Did Wisconsin Turnout Exceed the Number of Registered Voters?
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Scarlette Tarte
Nov 6, 2020

This fact checking that ya'll do alone is worth the price of admission.

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John M.
Nov 5, 2020

Keep the fact checks coming with dilligence, objectivity and hard work.

Subscribed just 5 hours ago and can't stop reading articles.

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