Inside the Purge of Tens of Thousands of Ohio Voters

[Judi Lynn]

Inside the Purge of Tens of Thousands of Ohio Voters

Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 8:48PM
by Author Kelly Terez
ABC News

(CLEVELAND) -- Chad McCullough, 44, was born in Ohio and has lived in Butler County for about nine or 10 years, he says.

Last November, McCullough and his wife made their way to the local polling station in southwest Ohio to cast their ballots.

But as he attempted to exercise his right to participate in the democratic process, a poll worker told him that he couldn't find his name on the voter registration list -- McCullough was no longer registered.

"I had no idea that my voter registration could be cancelled, even if I did not move," McCullough said.

McCullough is among tens of thousands of voters in Ohio, many from low-income neighborhoods and who typically vote for Democratic candidates, who have been deemed ineligible to vote by Ohio election officials last year simply because they haven't voted enough -- a move that disenfranchises voters and is illegal, voting rights advocates say.

More:
http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/inside-the-purge-of-tens-of-thousands-of-ohio-voters.html

[fasttense]

1. That is interesting.

Here in TN, I was told by an election official that I could be removed from the rolls just by not voting in a major election. They don't even wait a year here. It is probably not true and illegal. But that's just how TN rolls when it comes to making sure only RepubliCONS come out to vote.

[KoKo]

2. They did this in New York, also. n/t

[Igel]

3. The alternatives are all bad.

If you don't purge the rolls every decade or so, you can wind up with more voters than you have population. Like that doesn't encourage CTs.

TX, IIRC, does something similar. Don't vote for a while, they just know you didn't vote for a while. Did you move? Did you die? Did you just not vote?

From the voter's perspective, it's simple. "I didn't move. I know that. I didn't die. I know that. I just didn't vote. I know that. So they have no reason to remove my name from the rolls." At no point does the typical Mr. Nuanced Empathetic Citizen stop to think, "How could they know that, and do I want the rolls clogged with people who are dead or have moved?"

Then there are the calls for the various authorities to amalgamate their databases. Addresses, residence, age, whether you're alive or dead, all lets the elections authority know if you're eligible to vote. What could be nicer?

Except if you move, your name is automatically removed from the rolls. This is a good thing, right? Except that overlooked is the idea of address registration--you move into an area, the police know your name and address, and if you move you have to report the move to the police or other competent authority (police, post office, other, doesn't matter ... they all use the same database). It's like drivers licenses now--you have so many days after moving to a new state to turn in your drivers license to your old state. Except that there's no real enforcement mechanism. I'm sure that can't go wrong--if you move for a couple of months you may get your mail forwarded but then you'd have your database entry updated? Hmmm ... Not perfect.