Wisconsin plans to boot a startling number of people from its voter rolls

This Thursday, the Wisconsin state Elections Commission moved to remove as many as 188,000 people from the state's voter rolls because they have not cast ballots in the last four years, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

As the Sentinel points out, the effort took off after a lengthy legal fight over whether the commission should remove the people from the rolls because they were believed to have moved.

"In a 5-2 ruling this month, the state Supreme Court sided with the commission in finding it did not have to quickly take those voters off the rolls," the Sentinel's Patrick Marley writes. "Now, the commission is preparing to take action under a state law meant to clear the rolls of those who have not voted in the last four years. The commission is to send them notices giving them 30 days to ask to keep their voter registrations active."

Voters will be notified in June that they will have until July 15 to remain registered. Those who do not respond to the mailings will have their registrations deactivated.