Ohio to begin ‘enhanced’ voter roll purge ahead of November election

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio’s Secretary of State has ordered boards of elections to begin tallying the voters whose registrations will be canceled ahead of the November general election.

The process, required by state and federal law, will be “enhanced” this time, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said in a news release. Elections boards must mail notifications to affected voters by May 31.

Voters flagged to be purged from the rolls are usually identified four years prior in the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address registry and are notified at that time as having four years to take action. Such voters will be identified and notified under this purge, but LaRose has directed county elections boards to cross-reference voter registrations to identify other issues, including:

• Past due removals: Voters who were previously flagged for registration cancellation but who weren’t purged will be flagged again. This was an issue identified “as part of an ongoing data integrity review,” LaRose told elections boards.
• Notices returned undeliverable: Inactive voters whose original notification was returned as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service.
• BMV mismatches: Voters whose name, date of birth, Social Security number or driver’s license number does not match the state’s BMV records.

To be purged from the rolls, a voter’s registration status must meet the following requirements:

• Was notified no later than June 30, 2020, that they appeared in the NCOA out-of-county database; whose notice was returned undeliverable; or whose BMV records contradict voter registration
• No voting history since April 28, 2020
• Registered to vote before Feb. 18, 2020
• Has not engaged in “voter-initiated activity” since they received the 2020 notice

Voter-initiated activity includes voting, updating voter registration, submitting an absentee ballot request form, and signing a candidate or issue petition that is verified by a board of elections.

Once notified, potentially affected voters have until July 15 to update their registration or otherwise engage in voter-initiated activity. Voters who take no action will be purged from the rolls on July 22.

County boards of elections will identify affected voters by May 21 and will mail notices by May 31. After May 21, the Secretary of State’s searchable database of inactive voter registrations will be updated.

LaRose quietly canceled more than 26,000 voters’ registrations in September 2023. Voters were supposed to be purged from the rolls that July, but LaRose delayed the cancellations until after the August special election.