Advocates urge Ohio to restore voter registrations removed in apparent violation of federal law

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Voter advocacy organizations have put Ohio’s Republican elections chief on notice that voters are being systematically removed from the rolls in several counties in apparent violation of federal law.

A letter sent Thursday to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, just days ahead of Ohio’s Monday registration deadline, said the manner in which batches of voters suspected of having moved out of state are being systematically removed — based on challenges by third-party groups with no direct knowledge of a voter’s situation — is illegal.

The Ohio chapters of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, represented by the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice in Washington, D.C., urged LaRose to correct the violations within 20 days or they may sue. LaRose’s office is reviewing the request.

The voter advocates cite public records, including minutes of county election board meetings, voter challenge materials and other communications, showing mass removals in Delaware, Muskingum, probably Logan and possibly Cuyahoga counties. The latter is home to Cleveland, a Democratic stronghold.

The National Voter Registration Act prohibits the systematic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election. It also requires election officials to notify voters when their registrations are in danger of lapsing, and provides a four-year window for remedying the situation.

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In their letter, the advocates cited recently issued U.S. Justice Department guidance making clear that a person can only be removed from the rolls for a change of residency under two circumstances: if the voter submits a written address change, or if a flagged registration has met all federal notice and waiting period requirements.

Dan Lusheck, a spokesperson for LaRose’s office, said an Ohio law in place for nearly 20 years expressly permits voter challenges to be made until 30 days before an election. However, that law applies only to challenges involving individual voters, not systematic removals.

LaRose’s office said the secretary cast a tie vote Wednesday against sustaining most of the Delaware County registration challenges. Lusheck said the office would review the groups’ claims involving the other three counties.

Conservative groups across the country have been systematically challenging the legitimacy of large numbers of voter registrations this year. Democrats have alleged in court filings that it’s a coordinated effort to cause the American electorate to question the results of the 2024 presidential election, as former President Donald Trump repeatedly claims, without evidence that his opponents are trying to cheat.

In Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, ordered a suburban Detroit election clerk to reinstate the registrations of about 1,000 people removed after a third-party effort. And in Alabama last week, the Justice Department sued the state and its top election official, alleging that Alabama illegally purged voters too close to the November election.

The voter advocates provided several examples of what is happening around Ohio.

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In Delaware County’s fast-growing suburbs north of Columbus, the elections board in August granted at least 84 third-party challenges — and potentially hundreds more — based on voters’ purported changes of residence. The advocates said there was no evidence that the affected voters had been communicated with directly, as required.

About a dozen similar removals were carried out in Muskingum County, in eastern Ohio, at two challenge hearings in July, the advocates wrote, where challenges had been brought by third-party groups, such as Check My Vote and The People’s Audit. The advocates told LaRose that there is no evidence that the county first complied with the federally required notice and waiting period procedures. Similar removals appear to have taken place in Logan County, in southern Ohio, in June, they found.

In the letter announcing his tie-breaking Delaware County vote, LaRose said a total of about 300 registrations were challenged because voters had moved out of state. He noted that those shown to have registered or voted in North Carolina — 60 or so people — were removed in a bipartisan vote. But LaRose said he “unfortunately” had to oppose sustaining challenges to the remaining 240 due to a lack of “clear and convincing” proof that they had subsequently registered and/or voted in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee or Texas.

“Let me state clearly that I commend the citizens who are passionate enough about the integrity of our elections to crowdsource the veracity of our voter rolls,” LaRose wrote. “Their civic engagement must be applauded, and I share their commitment to honest and accurate elections.”