Last month, four organizations filed a lawsuit against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted over purges of the voter rolls. Those purges, imposed on voters who fail to cast ballots in three consecutive federal elections, affect people of color and Democrats disproportionately, lawyers for the groups say. They also penalize the homeless, who have no reliable way to receive mail. The state sends a postcard to voters who have missed an election.
All states cleanse their voter rolls of the deceased and people who have moved. But few do so based on how often a person casts a ballot. In fact, one of the claims in the lawsuit is that the practice of doing so violates federal law:
Keary McCarthy, president of Innovation Ohio, says Husted has taken purging the voter rolls a step too far.
“To invalidate someone’s registration simply for the fact that they haven’t voted in six years is not what the National Voter Registration Act was intended to do and that’s why this lawsuit is so important,” McCarthy said. [...]
“You end up depressing, I think, Democratic voters – Democratic turnout,” McCarthy said. “It affects both parties, certainly affects both parties, but when you think about potential motivation for this, you have to look at it honestly.”
In fact, the policy affects voters regardless of their party affiliation. But a Reuters survey shows that it seems to be giving a boost to Republicans in the state's largest metropolitan areas. In Ohio’s three largest counties that include the cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus, roughly twice as many voters have been removed from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods as in Republican neighborhoods. Just another effort to shave a percentage point or two off Democratic turnout.
Tom Filton, who heads up the conservative Judicial Watch, said the lawsuit is a move by civil liberties groups "to ensure that candidates they like are able to steal elections if necessary."
As political activists know all too well, one problem contributing to this matter is that Democrats are much more likely to skip elections than Republicans are, particularly in off-year contests. Whatever the courts decide regarding the purges, the minute the 2016 election is over on November 8, the national and state Democratic Party organizations ought to initiate a plan to get a much larger off-year percentage of voters to the polls than usual in 2018.