COLUMBUS, Ohio – When Ohioans head to the polls this November, they may want to make sure they are properly registered to vote.
In the run-up to the election, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose purged nearly 154,995 inactive and outdated registrations from Ohio’s voter rolls.
“This is a process that has been carried out for decades by Republican and Democratic secretaries of state,” LaRose said.
LaRose says deleting these voter registrations is part of state and federal law.
“If it’s a person who died or moved out of state or was never supposed to be registered to vote because they don’t have status, for example, then that’s not a voter,” LaRose said. “That’s just false data that we’re removing from the voter rolls.”
LaRose says the office made a list available to the public months before the records were deleted.
“When we do purge voter rolls, we can be confident that we’re doing it correctly because we would never want to purge anyone unnecessarily,” he said. “We work really hard to get people registered to vote.”
“We are seeing some problems with the unfortunate mass deportations,” said Kelly Dufour, elections director at Common Cause Ohio.
Dufour is in favor of ensuring voter rolls are constantly updated and accurate data is available, but says disenfranchised voters often cannot check online or receive mail. She says many vulnerable groups could be affected.
“There were also homeless people who were on these lists, and there’s no way to track them down and help them, not even as advocates to try to advocate for them to stay on the lists,” Dufour said. “So there’s really a lot more to it than that. And it has to be a thoughtful and deliberative process.”
Dufour claims the data is collected quickly and can change daily. She said immigration ceremonies take place and when a person receives citizenship, who may have already been excluded, they must register to vote.
Petee Talley, a representative of the Ohio Coalition on Black Civic Participation, called the system “problematic.”
She says most citizens are paying more attention to the presidential election and may not understand the background of the political process. Talley said several communities where voter registrations are being canceled have a high proportion of people of color. She says her group is trying to get more people to register to vote.
“More than half of the voters eliminated come from districts in Ohio that have a majority black and brown population,” Talley said.
LaRose says voter files do not include information about race and that the elimination process could affect everyone across the state.
“The majority of deportations are taking place in the most populous counties, which also happen to have larger minority communities,” said Dan Lusheck, a spokesman for Ohio’s secretary of state. “The bogus argument is completely baseless.”
LaRose said if there was a mistake, Ohioans would have until October 7, 2024, to register.
There are several reasons why a registered voter could be removed from the electoral roll, for example if the person has moved and filled out a change of address form at the post office.
“Ohio’s constitution requires that you be registered to vote 30 days before the election,” LaRose said. “So 30 days before the election, that window closes. And now there’s this reminder that you have to go vote.”
