NVRA Notice Letter for Ohio Senate Bill 293

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and our co-counsel American Civil Liberties Union sent a notice letter to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose informing him of violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in a recently passed law, Ohio Senate Bill 293 (SB 293). SB 293 requires the Secretary to perform monthly “citizenship checks” of the voter rolls across state and federal databases that often produce unreliable indicators of citizenship status. The law also instructs local election officials to purge registered voters from the rolls if either database produces a “noncitizen” indication without meaningfully notifying the previously registered voter and giving them a chance to correct the mistake. The notice letter alleges that this process of purging voters violates the NVRA’s requirement that voter list maintenance be “nondiscriminatory,” as the purging program is likely to disproportionately affect eligible naturalized citizens. Further, the letter alleges that Ohio law violates the NVRA’s “quiet period,” which requires that states refrain from “systematic” removals of voters from the rolls in the 90 days preceding a federal election.