COLUMBUS — Ohio’s elections chief has resumed the state’s stringent process for removing inactive voters from the rolls.
Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says he instructed Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections Tuesday to resume the so-called supplemental process that purges voters for not participating in elections over a six-year period.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the contested process in June. But Husted halted the process, saying he wouldn’t resume it until after the Nov. 6 election.
Husted, the lieutenant-governor elect, said Tuesday that Republicans and Democrats have carried out the process for 24 years.
“There is no single option for keeping clean voter rolls, which is why for nearly a quarter century both Democrat and Republican secretaries of state have used the supplemental process and other tools to make sure the state’s voter rolls are not bloated with names of people ineligible to vote,” he said.
Voting-rights groups had argued it violated a federal law intended to increase the ranks of registered voters.
Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper says the process makes it harder to exercise voting rights and shouldn’t resume.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Husted’s office initiated some new online notifications for voters about changes to their registration status, utilizing data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to confirm a voter’s address, as well as requiring county boards of elections to mail an additional “last chance” notice 30 to 45 days prior to canceling any voter’s registration.