Final phase of voter 'purge' to begin

COLUMBUS — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and county boards of election are about to complete a new round of flagging and removing "inactive" voters from the registration rolls as soon as Dec. 7 And while the process of identifying these Ohioans will overlap with the Nov. 3 election, his office on Friday stressed no one will be removed from the rolls prior to the presidential election. Such a move is legally prohibited during a federal election cycle. While the secretary of state's office doesn't like the term, the process of cleansing the state's registration rolls is often referred to as a "purge." In fact, his office said it hopes those who might show up on this list will act proactively to stay on the rolls by voting in the general election. "It is my duty to follow the law, and this process is required to happen this year, but what we did is find a creative way to make it is as accurate as possible and encourage people to become active voters again," LaRose said. "All you need to do is vote this November. Whether it's casting your absentee ballot, voting early at your county board of elections, or in-person on election day, we want you to make your voice heard." LaRose,a Republican and Ohio's top elections official, issued the directive on Friday to 88 county boards of election to move a process that began with a 2016 mailer into its final phase. County boards of election must send him lists by Aug. 21 of people who failed to respond to the 2016 confirmation notices sent to their last-known addresses because of their prior inactivity over the prior two years. These names will be posted on the secretary of state's website so that Ohioans may check to see if their names are on the list. County boards must mail a new notice to these people by Sept. 4. Those who fail to respond to this notice and do not vote or otherwise participate in the electoral process by requesting absentee ballots or updating their registration information by Nov. 3 can be removed from the rolls beginning on Dec. 7. In all, the period of "inactivity" spans six years, or 12 elections. The secretary of state's office anticipates nearly 120,000 names will be on that initial list from county boards. Ohio has 7.8 million registered voters. The list will be posted in a searchable database on the secretary of state's web site so that Ohioans may check to see if their names appear. The assumption in most cases is that the flagged names belong to people who have died or moved. But the office conceded that human errors in the last round completed last year, particularly by private vendors hired by election boards, resulted in names showing up on the initial list that should not have been there. Mr. LaRose plans to again partner with voting rights and community groups who will have the next four months to attempt to contact people on the list so that they could reaffirm their voting eligibility. "We again appreciate the transparency that the secretary is providing through this effort, and we appreciate that there will be no voter registrations canceled until after the election," said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. "My hope is that voters will take advantage of this opportunity to see if they are at risk of being removed from the rolls and update their registration or show up to vote." She said groups like hers will not know whether they have the capacity to reach out to the flagged Ohioans until they see how long the list is. "The last time the secretary of state did this was the first time ever that we had the list made available to the public," Ms. Miller said. "We learned a lot through that process. We, of course, will look at the list to see if we see mistakes. It's really their job to make sure the list is accurate, but we will fact check that list again." With the last round, 650,000 Ohioans were initially sent confirmation notices. That list was culled to 235,000. By the time the entire controversial process had run its course last year, 180,000 registrations were canceled. It is expected that an initial list of 120,000 names this year would also be ultimately be reduced before cancellations occur. The latest process comes at a time when county boards are preparing for an election the likes that Ohio has never seen before. After seeing the March primary election turned almost entirely into a vote-by-mail election because of the coronavirus pandemic, the emphasis is again heavy on mail-in absentee ballots for Nov. 3. Maintenance of voter registration rolls is mandated under Ohio law, and the general process by which the state has done it has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. ——— ©2020 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) Visit The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) at www.toledoblade.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.