A 2022 hearing clip, back in circulation, counts every record in the state's voter database, including millions who can't vote, and undercounts the state's adults.
Wisconsin! Mass Voter Fraud ! 7 MILLION REGISTERED VOTERS… The Problem ??? Only 4 MILLION VOTER AGED CITIZENS…. IN THE ENTIRE STATE !!! [The post carries a one-minute clip from a Feb. 9, 2022, Wisconsin Assembly committee hearing. Election activist Peter Bernegger says the state's voter database shows about 7.1 million registrants and "we only have 4 million adults in the state of Wisconsin."]
Wisconsin had about 3.6 million active voters on Nov. 1, not 7 million. The 7 million was a 2022 count of every database record, including inactive ones that can't vote without registering again. Adult citizens number about 4.5 million, not 4. Ballots have stayed well below the adult population. The fight is over how fast to prune the active list.
What the post says or clearly implies, checked one by one. How verdicts work
Wisconsin had 3,634,846 active voters on Nov. 1, 2026. The 7 million was the 2022 total of every database record, active and inactive. Inactive voters, including people who died or moved away, can't vote without registering again.
The clip is from a Feb. 9, 2022, Assembly hearing, where Bernegger said the database showed about 7.1 million registrants. Asked later, he acknowledged the figure included inactive records. That month the state had 3,484,948 active voters1. It had 3,634,846 on Nov. 1 this year2.
Wisconsin never deletes voter records3. If his 7.13 million figure was right, about 3.6 million were inactive that month, by our calculation1. By March 2026 the database held about 8.2 million in all, by the commission's rounding: 3.6 million active and about 4.7 million inactive4. People go inactive when they die, move and register in another state, are convicted of a felony or are dropped through routine list maintenance. An inactive voter is "not eligible to vote unless you reregister," with a proof-of-residence document, and only active voters appear in poll books3.
One person can leave several records. Someone who moves to another Wisconsin city, village or town and registers again leaves the old record behind as inactive4.
The Census Bureau puts Wisconsin's voting-age citizens at about 4.5 million, averaged over 2020–2024. The state's 2026 estimate of all adults is about 4.8 million.
The Census Bureau's special tabulation from the 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts 4,505,014 voting-age citizens in Wisconsin, give or take about 2,9005. The Elections Commission, which measures turnout against all adults, uses a 2026 voting-age population of 4,786,0656. The census figures put noncitizen adults at about 145,000, by our calculation5.
That's half a million more than the post allows, which narrows the gap it points to. Wisconsin's 3.6 million active voters are about four in five of its adult citizens, using the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 average, by our calculation2,5.
The gap comes from counting inactive records that can't vote. Ballots cast have stayed well below the number of adults. An audit and clerk referrals turned up several dozen suspected cases in 2020 and 2024, not millions.
In November 2024, a record year, Wisconsin cast 3,438,431 ballots, 72.95% of its adults, by the Elections Commission's count. About 331,000 voters registered or re-registered on Election Day7. That's one reason ballots can't be checked against the pre-election list alone. This week's unofficial count is about 2.65 million8, roughly 55% of the 2026 adult estimate, by our calculation6.
Reviews have found isolated cases. The Legislative Audit Bureau found that 11 people who died before Election Day 2020 likely voted, 8 serving felony sentences may have voted and 4 may have voted twice9. That election had 3,308,805 ballots7. Clerks referred 46 suspected cases of fraud or irregularities from the November 2024 election to prosecutors10.
The claim keeps coming back. Bernegger made it in 20221. In January President Trump shared posts and videos repeating it11, 14 months after the Elections Commission rebutted an 8 million version3.
Facts can't settle this part, so we don't rule on it.
How fast should Wisconsin drop voters flagged as having moved or died, weighing stale names on the list against the risk of dropping eligible voters?
The state keeps inactive records on purpose, partly to catch someone registering under a dead voter's name4,12. The argument is over the active list. In 2019 a conservative law firm sued to make the state drop voters flagged as movers who didn't answer a mailing. The state Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in 2021 that the Elections Commission had no such duty13.
Stale names on the active list invite mistakes and doubt, and the state has been slow to clear them.
The state's own auditors found gaps. From 2016 to 2021 the Elections Commission pulled some ERIC data, from the multistate list-matching group, every two years and some only once. Minnesota pulled all of it monthly9. Eleven people who died before Election Day 2020 likely voted, because death matches reached clerks after their absentee ballots went out9.
The problems persist. In October 2025 the law firm that brought the movers suit counted more than 41,000 voter records that didn't match driver records14,15. That "does not necessarily indicate widespread voter fraud," it says, but the issues are "far too extensive for WEC to continue to ignore"15. About 69,000 flagged movers who hadn't contacted a clerk or voted since the October 2019 mailing stayed active until after the April 2021 election9. A current list, open to outside checks, is what lets voters trust the count.
Matching data is error-prone, and cutting voters too fast keeps eligible people from voting.
Flags aren't findings. In 2019 the state mailed 232,579 people that ERIC flagged as possible movers. By August 2021, two-thirds were still active because they had contacted a clerk, updated their record online or voted9. The law firm's suit would have dropped those who hadn't answered 30 days after the mailing13.
Wisconsin's safeguards sit elsewhere. Voters flagged as possible movers carry a mark in the poll book and must affirm their address before getting a ballot4. The commission says driver-record mismatches are almost always typos4. Inactive voters aren't in poll books, and getting back on means registering again with proof of residence3. Clerks sent 46 referrals for suspected fraud or irregularities from more than 3.4 million ballots in 2024, counting only cases the commission knows of10. Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who chaired the commission in January, called keeping old records "pro-list-hygiene"12.
Every source was opened and read. Advocacy groups are labeled as such.
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