After Ohio's Supreme Court Win, Voting Rights Advocates Fear More Aggressive Purges
After the Supreme Court upheld Ohio's aggressive methods of pruning its voter registration rolls Monday, a triumphant Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted suggested other states look to it as a model.
That's exactly what voting rights advocates are afraid of.
"If you're a state that wants to get in the business of progressively purging your voters, they have a green light to essentially to copy the Ohio system," Paul Smith, vice president of Campaign Legal Center, said in a call with reporters Monday.
He noted that minorities, lower-income, and younger voters — all Democratic-leaning groups — are disproportionately affected by strict voter roll maintenance systems like Ohio's, which boots people after they don't vote in a few elections and fail to respond to a mailed notice, even if they would otherwise be eligible to vote.