Supreme Court allows Ohio, other state voter purges
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can clean up their voting rolls by targeting people who haven’t cast ballots in a while.
The justices rejected, by a 5-4 vote Monday, arguments in a case from Ohio that the practice violates a federal law intended to increase the ranks of registered voters. A handful of other states also use voters’ inactivity to trigger a process that could lead to their removal from the voting rolls.
Justice Samuel Alito said for the court that Ohio is complying with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. He was joined by his four conservative colleagues.
The four liberal justices dissented.
Partisan fights over ballot access are being fought across the country. Democrats have accused Republicans of trying to suppress votes from minorities and poorer people who tend to vote for Democrats. Republicans have argued that they are trying to promote ballot integrity and prevent voter fraud.
Under Ohio rules, registered voters who fail to vote in a two-year period are targeted for eventual removal from registration rolls, even if they haven’t moved and remain eligible. The state said it only uses the disputed process after first comparing its voter lists with a U.S. postal service list of people who have reported a change of address. But not everyone who moves notifies the post office, the state said.
So the state asks people who haven’t voted in two years to confirm their eligibility. If they do, or if they show up to vote over the next four years, voters remain registered. If they do nothing, their names eventually fall off the list of registered voters.
“Combined with the two years of nonvoting before notice is sent, that makes a total of six years of nonvoting before removal,” Alito wrote.
Justice Stephen Breyer, writing in dissent, said the 1993 law prohibits removing someone from the voting rolls “by reason of the person’s failure to vote. In my view, Ohio’s program does just that.”
In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Congress enacted the voter registration law “against the backdrop of substantial efforts by states to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters.” The court’s decision essentially endorses “the very purging that Congress expressly sought to protect against,” Sotomayor wrote.
Civil rights groups said the court should be focused on making it easier for people to vote, not allowing states to put up roadblocks to casting ballots.
“With the midterm election season now underway, the court’s ruling demands heightened levels of vigilance as we anticipate that officials will read this ruling as a green light for loosely purging the registration rolls in their community,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Jackie Juntti comments: I have been complaining and promoting a cleansing of the voter registration roles since the early 1990's.
ReplyDeleteAfter providing the County office of many in my precinct who had died, moved, etc., and they refused to do anything about it I knew that voter fraud was what they wanted. The Dems and RINO's need those dead and long gone registrants to keep *voting*.
Over these past almost 30 years I have figured that all voter roles should be cleared and those who REALLY want to vote and participate in this process can find it in their means to re-register every 4 or 6 years. If the roles are cleared every so many years and those who want to vote need to re-register then only LIVE - LEGALLY ELIGIBLE TO VOTE, people will be able to cast a vote. This would be so easy to do but those who want the ineligibles and dead to be able to be counted fight this idea like crazy. Also, no more permanent absentee registrations. If a voter wants to vote absentee then they need to apply for that each time. All those voters who are in nursing homes need some protection to make sure their vote isn't made by some nurses aide rather than the registrant. We need ensure that the VOTER fills out the ballot - not some other person. Absentee ballots leave that possibility wide open.
Let's make this happen nationwide. Give up the ILLEGAL and DEAD voters at long last - leaving only LIVE - LEGAL - individuals to cast votes.
Jackie Juntti