PURGE
vote during a six-year span and failing to respond to notices will remain eligible to vote this year, Husted’s office said in a memorandum Tuesday afternoon.
Federal law prohibits revoking voter registrations less than 90 days before a federal election, Husted’s office said. Prior to the Nov. 6 election, residents of the Columbus-area 12th Congressional District will vote Aug. 7 to elect Democrat Danny O’Connor or Republican Troy Balderson to succeed departed Republican Pat Tiberi. Joe Manchik of the Green Party also is on the ballot
Ohio voters had not been removed for failing to cast ballots since the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court ruling Monday was filed in 2016.
Before then, 225,717 voters were notified in 2014 of their potential purging this year and 363,882 were notified in 2013 that they could lose their vote in 2017. Franklin County’s cumulative total of voters who could have been purged stands at about 40,000, a spokesman said. Husted’s office said it has no current numbers on voters who could potentially have been purged.
Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper welcomed Husted’s directive. “It’s good to see the federal law protecting Ohio voters for the rest of 2018 even when current state leaders have been working overtime to knock them off the rolls,” he said. “There are far better ways to keep the rolls clean than the current inefficient and sloppy approach.”
In a 5-4 ruling Monday, the Supreme Court upheld an Ohio law that allows election officials to remove voters from the rolls if they have neither voted during a six-year span nor responded to notices mailed by county elections boards.The justices overruled a 2016 decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Ohio system violated federal law in a way that critics charged works against minority and low-income voters.
Husted and Republican supporters of the law said the purging helps maintain valid rolls of registered voters while heading off potential abuse or fraud. Democrats said the “use it or lose it” approach to voting serves to disenfranchise infrequent voters.
In the Nov. 6 election, voters will cast ballots for all statewide executive offices, including the governor’s race between the Republican ticket of Mike DeWine and Husted and the Democratic team of Richard Cordray and Betty Sutton.