Purged Ohio voters get added chance to register

Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose said he is taking the “unprecedented” step of sending another “lastchance” mailing to thousands of voters purged from voter rolls.

Larose’s office on Monday asked county boards of elections to provide voter identification numbers of those who did not respond to notices sent by former Secretary of State Jon Husted — as many as 267,000 voters. Larose said he will send voter registration cards to each of the addresses provided.

“Ohio is once again taking an unprecedented step to ensure everyone who wants to be registered to vote gets that opportunity,” Larose said. “Our state has long been a leader in making elections both accessible and secure, and this effort will continue that strong tradition.”

Larose said the additional mailing is a first step and he intends to push fora more comprehensive update of Ohio’s “antiquated system” for updating voter rolls.

Under state law, registrations of voters are revoked once they have not cast a ballot in any election within six years and fail to respond to notices mailed by county boards of elections.

Husted directed counties to send notices to inactive voters last month before completing his second term.

The practice had been suspended after critics filed a lawsuit arguing that Ohio’s law removed otherwise-eligible voters from voting rolls. However, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow the purges to continue.