Up to 119,000 Ohio voters could be purged from rolls, but none before fall election

Ohio election officials are beginning the annual purge of voters who have not cast ballots in six years, but none will be removed from the voting rolls prior to the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose expects about 119,000 of 7.8 million voters could have their registrations canceled on Dec. 7 unless they vote on Nov. 3 or respond to notices to be mailed by Sept. 4.

The state’s chief elections officer is sending out a directive to the 88 county boards of election later Friday on how to handle the submission of inactive voter data to the secretary of state’s office for scrutiny.

Last year, the county boards submitted the names of about 240,000 voters they believed should be purged from rolls, but the LaRose’s office whittled that number down to about 194,000.

LaRose’s office says it is providing an unprecedented amount of time for people flagged for the potential loss of their votes to respond or cast ballots this fall to avoid losing their registrations.

“Instead of just telling the boards to hit delete on a certain date,” LaRose said his office is endeavoring to “save as many registrations as possible.”

The names of voters who would be purged will be publicly posted online so people can check whether they are in danger of losing their vote and political parties and others will be encouraged to track down and notify those on the list.

LaRose believes most of the inactive voters targeted for potential removal are either deceased, departed from their listed addresses or have duplicate registrations.

The legally mandated voter purges have been controversial and problem-filled for years in Ohio, even leading to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding state law.

The Dispatch identified more than 1,600 active voters last year who were incorrectly notified that their registrations were about to be purged for inactivity. Some had cast ballots as recently as 2018. Elections officials blamed a voter-registration-software vendor’s error.

Ohio has 88 county board of elections using five different software systems, which LaRose says makes voting lists prone to errors. He wants a system in which the state, rather than counties, maintain voter rolls, like in all but six states.

“I’ve been frustrated by the lack of action from the legislature on a number of things. But, this is something where we are an outlier,” he said, adding a centralized state voter system would be more effective.

Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, the state expects a record voter turnout on Nov. 3 due to the presidential race between Republican President Donald Trump and the Democrat, former Vice President Joe Biden.