Documents on state computers concerning state Republicans’ 2011 redistricting efforts were deleted before the hard drives were turned over to plaintiffs, who challenged the redistricting in an earlier court case, according to court documents filed Wednesday that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examined.
Several state Democrats and the immigrants’ rights interest group Voces de la Frontera initially challenged Republicans’ redistricting efforts, arguing they were drawn to disenfranchise Latino voters in Milwaukee.
The state legislature is required to redraw congressional maps every 10 years to accommodate changes in populations around the state. The process is usually highly contentious because it allows the majority party to redraw state districts to give candidates from their party a better chance of winning in elections.
The initial case resulted in a judgement against the state, but soon after the decision, the plaintiffs discovered the state had withheld at least 55 documents during the proceedings, according to the court records. A judge ordered the state to hand over the nine hard drives containing the documents soon after the discovery, but the plaintiffs recently found a number of the documents had been deleted. The plaintiffs filed the court papers Wednesday to investigate the deleted documents.
The plaintiffs are currently working to recover some of the lost documents and identify who may be responsible for deleting them, according to the court records.
