Ohio’s voter-purge list in demand

Political organizations, pastors and lawmakers are among the 20 groups and individuals who so far have requested the list of voters who could be purged from Ohio’s voter rolls in September.

In June, Secretary of State Frank Larose said he would compile such a statewide list for the first time and make it available for use in pursuing registered voters who are in danger of being purged.

The League of Women Voters, the Ohio Republican Party, the Ohio chapter of the NAACP and eight pastors and bishops have asked for a copy of what Larose is calling the “Registration Reset List.” Two individuals from Ohio United 4 America, which identifies itself on its website as a nonprofit, also have asked for the list.

Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections had until July 15 to submit their lists, but Larose’s office has not yet said how many people will receive a “last-chance notice” that their registration could be canceled. Cancellation notices are scheduled to go out to those voters on Monday, and those who do not respond would be purged from the state’s voter registry on Sept. 6.

Larose spokeswoman Maggie Sheehan wrote in an email that the list is expected to be finished “very soon” and that the office hopes that more groups request it.

Under Ohio law, upheld last summer by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio elections official remove voters from the rolls if they haven’t voted during a six-year span or responded to the mailed notice.

This is the second time that Ohio has removed inactive registrants since the Supreme Court decision. In January, 276,200 last-chance notices were sent to voters who could be removed. ThenSecretary of State Jon Husted, now the lieutenant governor, didn’t require boards of elections to provide their lists of potential purged voters to his office. Larose changed that under a directive he issued in June.

The League of Women Voters still is trying to determine how it will use the list

to try to track down registrants and ensure that they are registered to vote, said Jen Miller, the organization’s executive director.

“We will most likely work with our local leagues across the state to reach out to individuals at risk of being purged in a more personal way,” she said. “We need to look at the list. We need to figure out where these folks are and help our local leagues determine the best way to reach out to them.”

Some chapters could make direct phone calls or knock on doors, Miller said, but tactics could differ across about 35 local chapters in Ohio.

The league has opposed Ohio’s voterpurge process; Miller said the last-chance notices are confusing and ineffective. The organization would prefer to have automatic voter registration, in which address information is updated whenever someone interacts with

a state agency.

“We don’t know how effectively we’ll be in reaching out to these at-risk voters,” she said. “But bottom line: We need to change how we manage our voter registration rolls. We’re happy to help in this stopgap measure. But we need to modernize our system.”

Larose has said that he is working with state legislators to propose legislation that would “modernize” Ohio’s voter registration system, although he has not provided details.

Ohio GOP Chairman Jane Timken also has requested the list. State party spokesman Evan Machan said the party is “actively engaged with making sure we have Republican voters registered.”

“We are focused on ensuring that we leave no stone left unturned when it comes to winning elections in Ohio. We utilize every available piece of data to register voters — whether those are first-time voters or voters who have not been active for some time,” he wrote in an email.

Ohio Sen. Vernon Sykes agreed to reach out to statewide and local groups about using the list to update registrations and keep those voters from being purged, said Faith Oltman, spokeswoman for the Senate Democratic Caucus. Sykes has contacted the statewide NAACP office, which also has requested the list, and others in his Akronarea district, she said.

Ohio Conference of NAACP President Tom Roberts said the group has opposed purges of voter registrations, but it will work with the list to seek out voters who could be removed.

“My goal is to get that list and then to work it," he said. “I understand telephone is not the best way to do it, so we may be door-knocking.”