For the second time in less than a month, Ohio’s election system is being challenged in court.
In mid-March, days before the primary election, a Franklin County judge overturned Secretary of State Jon Husted’s rule barring minors from participating in the presidential nomination process.
This time, a New York-based, voting-rights advocacy group called Demos is challenging Husted’s order that idle voters be stricken, or purged, from Ohio’s voter registry, a requirement to participate in elections.
Under Husted, nearly 2 million names of mostly transient or deceased voters have been purged. Keeping registries current and accurate, Husted’s office says, reduces the potential for voter fraud, longer lines and discarded ballots as poll workers aren’t faced with as many voters requiring provisional ballots because of their questionable residency.
The lawsuit, however, argues that some voters — who may not have left the county or the state — never knew they had been unregistered. Instead, they were denied their right to vote.
In its research and outreach, Demos said it has collected statements from Ohio voters who showed up at the polls last year only to find their names missing from poll books. Some were given provisional ballots, which were later tossed out. Others complained to Husted’s office, an attorney for Demos said.
The purged
Husted’s office said 465,000 of the nearly 2 million names it has purged belong to deceased voters. The rest have either moved or are believed to have moved because they have not participated.
After missing two federal elections, voters are sent a postcard reminder to their last known address, asking if they’d like to remain registered or, if the postcard is forwarded to another address, need to update their information.
The lawsuit, filed with support by the American Civil Liberties Union and on behalf of the Ohio chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a civil rights advocate, and Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, doesn’t deny Husted’s federal obligation to purge names if voters do not respond after the post office provides proof, in the form of a change-of-address form, that they’ve moved.
Stuart Naifeh, senior counsel at Demos and lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit takes issue with Ohio’s assumption that because voters haven’t voted, they no longer are residents and should be removed.
“The length of time that a person hasn’t voted before they get targeted for this is the shortest that I’m aware of, in Ohio. It’s two years,” Naifeh said. “Ohio has one of the most aggressive policies, if not the most aggressive policy, in terms of getting people off the rolls.”
The process may begin after two years without voting. But the entire process of purging names, Husted’s office said, takes up to six years. That means voters who haven’t participated since the high-profile presidential election of 2008 might be in for a rude awakening when they try to vote again this November during a presidential election with no incumbent.
Election politics
Hours before the civil lawsuit was filed in federal court around noon Wednesday, Husted spokesman Josh Eck said such challenges in high-profile federal election years have become commonplace.
“This is the type of election-year political lawsuit that Ohioans have unfortunately had to get used to and come to expect,” Eck said.
The process for cleaning up voter rolls with no verifiable proof from the post office has been in place for decades, Eck argued, pointing to directives under previous secretaries of state — whether Republicans, like Husted, or Democrats.
“I would say first that it doesn’t really matter how long it has been going on if it violates the law; it must stop,” Naifeh said. “And I would say it has made the situation worse in Ohio where people are not allowed to register and vote on the same day,” which was available before Ohio eliminated the so-called Golden Week.
For proof that rigorous voter purging protects rather than undermines Ohio’s election system, Husted’s office pointed to more complete voting records (90 percent, up from 20 percent when Husted took office, now contain accurate birth dates, driver’s license information and Social Security numbers). Plus, Eck said, fewer provisional ballots are needed and a lower percent are being discounted.
Still, the potential remains to disenfranchise voters who chose to sit out a single presidential election.
Demos said it surveyed county boards of elections and found that Ohio disproportionately uses voter participation, rather than proof a voter has moved out of a county, to purge names. In Cuyahoga County, for example, Naifeh said the board of elections removed 50,000 names, only 10,000 with proof that they had moved and the rest simply idle in their democratic duty.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.