OH Was Set to Purge Voters and It Was Wrong About 20%

Ohio, where the Democratic Presidential Candidates are set to Debate Tonight, is both a Battleground State and the Site of some of the Country’s Strictest Voting Laws, from Voter ID Requirements to a “Use-It-or-Lose-It” Provision that lets Officials Drop Voters seen as Inactive.

The Combination has led Voting Rights Advocates to contend that Parts of the State are regularly Disenfranchised, Largely in Purges aimed at those who have Died or Moved Away, but which also hit Real Voters who don’t Learn they can’t Vote until Election Day.

This year, a Group of Elected Officials in the State, mostly All Moderate Republicans, tried to answer the Concerns with an Experiment of their Own: Rather than Purge the Voter Rolls behind Closed Doors as had been done in the Past, the Government Released the Full List of those to be Removed this Summer, and gave the List to Advocacy Groups. The Groups said they found the List was Riddled with Errors.

The Result: 235,000 were to be Purged. Around 40,000 People, nearly One in Five Names on the List, Shouldn’t have been on it, the State determined. And it only Found Out before Anyone was Actually Turned away at a Polling Place largely because of Volunteer Sleuthing.

Few People had Expected a Problem at that Scale.

But the Process gave Hope to People Working on Voting Rights, who for Years had Pushed the State to be more Transparent in how it was Maintaining its Voter Rolls.

Moderate Republicans, caught between Advocacy Groups Pushing for Fewer Purges and more Conservative Leaders in other States urging for More, think they may have Found a Way to Thread the Needle.

Under Ohio Law, the State is Allowed to Cull Voters’ Names from the Rolls if they haven’t Voted in Six years and don’t respond to a Postcard from the State informing them that they are about to be Purged and need to take Action. This is Illegal.

The National Voter Rights Act (NVRA) sets out very Specific Procedures a State must follow before it can Remove a Voter from the Vote Rolls. Either a Voter Notifies the Board in Writing of a Move, or the Vote Fails to Respond to a Notice seeking Confirmation that a Voter is still at a given Address and that Voter Fails to Vote in Two Consecutive Federal Elections. Then the State can Designate them as Inactive. If the Voter does not Vote in Two More Consecutive Federal Elections, they can then be Purged from the Voter Rolls. But the State must Allow them to Voter as a Regular Voter and they should be on the Voter Rolls until they are Purged.










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