Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Ohio purge ends with most culled because they haven't voted

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose

Secretary of State Frank LaRose described the culling of non-voters from the registration files as an enormous housekeeping victory.

Justin Merriman/Getty Images

The controversial culling of Ohio's voter rolls ended this week after the deletion of another 182,000 registrations, or 2 percent of the statewide total, in one of the nation's biggest electoral bellwethers. Most were purged only because they haven't voted in six years.

The process began three years ago with the targeting of 6 percent of the entries in the records. About half of those were removed in an initial round, in January, after a series of legal fights. The second round has gained new scrutiny because the state's 8 million voters will be courted intensely by both presidential campaigns. No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes.


Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, has emphasized an enormous housekeeping victory with the removal of duplicate registrations, the dead and people who have moved without telling the Postal Service.

But the Columbus Dispatch reports that, in the round that ended with September's close, seven out of every eight of the people purged were removed because they had not voted in at least half a dozen years. The newspaper's study was based on records from almost all 88 counties with the notable exception of Cuyahoga, the heart of the Cleveland metro area.

Under a state law, upheld by the Supreme Court last year, non-voter purges are automatic unless individuals ask to stay on the rolls when the state informs them they're about to be dropped.

After The Dispatch and voting rights groups unearthed problems with the lists of voters who received those notices, LaRose required every county board of elections to report the names and reasons for every purge. He also told them to retain people who moved within a county. In addition, under a lawsuit settlement, any purged voter may cast a provisional ballot in their last county of record.

Registered voters can check the state's database to see if their registrations were among those purged. They can re-register to vote for the November election before Oct. 7 at olvr.ohiosos.gov or at their local board of elections.

Read More

Strengthening Elections, Rights, and Citizen Engagement

Strengthening Elections, Rights, and Citizen Engagement

Strengthening Elections, Rights, and Citizen Engagement

Welcome to the latest edition of The Expand Democracy 5. From Rob Richie, with Eveline Dowling and Juniper Shelley’s assistance, we highlight timely links and stories about democracy at the local, national, and global levels. Today's stories include:

🔁 The primary problem is a lack of general election competition

Keep ReadingShow less
Pros and Cons of Congressional Term Limits

The United States Capitol Building, the seat of Congress, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Getty Images, Omar Chatriwala

Pros and Cons of Congressional Term Limits

Background: What are Congressional Term Limits?

While members of the U.S. House of Representatives serve two-year terms and U.S. Senators serve six-year terms, all Congresspeople are eligible for re-election indefinitely. As of 2023, U.S. Representatives served an average term of 8.5 years, while U.S. Senators served an average term of 11.2 years.

Keep ReadingShow less