Democrats wants independent audit of Ohio voter purges

(The Center Square) – House Democrats want an independent look at a recent Ohio voter purge they say initially disqualified 16,000 people from voting.

In a letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Cleveland Democratic Reps. Juanita Brent and Bride Rose Sweeney called the state’s voter purges flawed and asked for transparency.

“Ohio’s purging of voters is nothing to be proud of. Every time there is a purge, we discover that Ohioans with the right to vote are wrongfully removed from our roll,” Sweeney said. “We should not mess with the people’s freedom to vote. This process needs transparency and an audit to help restore confidence in our elections.”

The letter also asked for more information from LaRose detailing the method used to conduct the purge.

“We’re not sure why they would question the judgment or competency of our professional bipartisan boards of elections which provide us with this data, but we encourage everyone to review the list of abandoned registrations to persuade those who have not participated in any voter activity in six years to reregister to vote and participate in our democratic process,” LaRose spokesman Rob Nichols said Monday.

LaRose announced earlier in February updates to the voter registration database in the state. The process includes local boards of elections to mail notices to voters who have moved or are inactive. It starts a four-year clock for the cancellation of inactive or inaccurate registrations.

A voter needs six years of inactivity before being removed from the rolls.

In March 2022, the local boards identified 139,770 registrations eligible for cancellation. After the November 2022 election, boards reported 124,158 cancellations, as 15,612 voters were identified and removed from the original list due to voter activity or other action.

“Cleaning up abandoned registrations from our voting rolls isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the law,” LaRose said. “It’s a commonsense measure that makes it easier to prevent fraud and reduces the burden and costs at our county boards of elections.”