COLUMBUS – Ohio’s elections chief says voters improperly removed from the state’s registration list could cast provisional ballots in the presidential election, if a court allows it.
Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted made the suggestion in a court filing Thursday. He’s asked a judge to provide a remedy in a case that challenged Ohio’s process for maintaining its voter rolls.
“A federal court in a 2 to 1 decision said the state can no longer use the current system for voter roll maintenance, but did not prescribe a resolution for the matter,” Husted said in a release from his office.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati had found that Ohio’s procedure violates federal law. It returned the case to a lower court to decide a solution for the affected voters.
Proper voter roll maintenance helps us avoid having bloated voter rolls that result in some counties having more people registered to vote than it has actual voting-age adults, which is a formula for fraud and confusion at the polls. –statement from Ohio Secy. of State Jon Husted
Husted says, in the interest of resolving the case, the court could allow voters removed in 2015 to cast a provisional ballot in elections through January 2019. He proposed a directive to elections officials outlining safeguards.