As the GOP Convention Begins, Ohio Is Purging Tens of Thousands of Democratic Voters

[Haveadream]

The GOP is in overdrive to purge voter rolls of Democrats in the swing state of Ohio leading up to the 2016 GE. It looks like Dems in many states will have to reregister to protect their right to vote this year.

Larry Harmon, a 59-year-old software engineer and Navy vet, went the polls in 2015 in his hometown of Kent, Ohio, to vote on a state ballot initiative. But poll workers told him he was no longer registered and could not vote.

“I felt embarrassed and stupid at the time,” Harmon told Reuters. “The more I think about it, the madder I am,” he said.

Harmon voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but had not returned to vote until 2015. He later learned that he was purged from the rolls in Ohio for “infrequent voting” because he had not voted in a six-year period, even though he hadn’t moved or done anything to change his registration status. The same thing is now happening to tens of thousands of voters across the state. The fear is that voters who cast ballots in 2008 but have not participated since, particularly first-time voters for Obama, will show up in 2016 to find that they are no longer registered. Ohio has purged more voters over a 5-year period than any other state.

At least 144,000 voters in Ohio’s three largest counties, home to Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, were purged since the 2012 election, with voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods twice as likely to be removed as those in Republican-leaning ones, according to a Reuters analysis by Andy Sullivan and Grant Smith. That includes 40,000 voters purged in Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, where the GOP convention is taking place this week. These cities are heavily Democratic, with large minority populations, and there’s a clear partisan and racial disparity to the state’s voter purge.

https://www.thenation.com/article/as-the-gop-convention-begins-ohio-is-purging-tens-of-thousands-of-democratic-voters/

[Angry Dragon]

1. election fraud

[Haveadream]

5. yep

Everyone needs to keep checking their status, especially in counties where the GOP has their hands on the registration rolls.

[guillaumeb]

2. This does beg the question:

Did he forget to vote in 2010, 2012, and 2014?

2010 was a low turnout year when the GOP leveraged that low turnout to win many states. This allowed them to further gerrymander the districts and win more in 2012 and 2014.

I have no sympathy for Mr. Harmon even thought the GOP is obviously attempting to win by any means.

[Thinkingabout]

3. In Harris County Texas we are able to access a database to check our registeration

I don't know what the time length is between voting before one is purged. I have been moved several times in the past years on where I vote but think this year I will request a mail ballot.

[Haveadream]

11. Good thinking, Thinkingabout!

[Bill USA]

4. is there a way to find out if you are still registered before going to the polling place to vote?

[Haveadream]

8. Try this link

http://www.canivote.org/

[Bill USA]

12. actually, I was asking for people in Ohio. I don't live there and I haven't missed a presidential

election in decades. but thanks for those who need to know.

[Haveadream]

13. Thanks, Bill USA!

Yes, folks on DU are probably on top of these things but you never know!

[BobbyDrake]

6. You'll lose 100% of the rights you don't defend. nt

[Haveadream]

7. http://www.canivote.org/

http://www.canivote.org/

[wiggs]

9. so where is the aclu? where are the state and federal dems? can't something be done about this? nt

[SheilaT]

10. Many states, perhaps all of them,

have rules that allow them to purge voters who haven't voted in some specific length of time. Usually several election cycles.

When I was running for office in 2004, and doing door-to-door campaigning with registration rolls in hand, it was sometimes amazing how many voters were registered at one address. And only two actual registered voters lived there, but the prior occupants had moved and either had not re-registered, thereby purging their registration at that address, or maybe the re-registration wasn't enough to trigger the purge.

Someone who skips a Presidential election hasn't shown much commitment to voting.

There does need to be a better system. Some sort of automatic registration that is connected to your driver's license, and something else to cover all the many potential voters who don't drive.

Does anyone know how they do it in other countries?

[WhiteTara]

14. Now this is a great campaign idea...call

all the democrats to make sure they are registered...maybe a few ads. Maybe something Move On should take on.

[raven mad]

15. Well, duh.

That's GOP SOP.

[Equinox Moon]

16. It is a shame to see the world's great democracy acting like this

Who will hold the establishment accountable to be a democracy?
We The People

[colsohlibgal]

17. Remember Florida 2000

They purged democratic voters anyway they could, they had the deceiving ballot in one county that had people thinking they voted for Gore actually voting for Buchanan....and amazingly a judge refused to acknowledge the obvious.

And oh the consequences of that theft that put Dubya in office despite, even with the purged votes, him getting less votes that Gore.

Out of that we got trillions blown on an ill advised war, so many killed or maimed, and into the vacuum ISIS.

We may be so close to real implosion.

[tallahasseedem]

18. 2004 as well...

I still can't believe Kerry didn't fight harder.

[MineralMan]

19. Most states remove people who

Don't vote in a presidential election. Why?

Because people move. If you skip a presidential election, you need to register again. Why did you miss an election anyhow? I have voted in every election, every year. My vote matters, so I vote.

I still check my registration before every election. It has always been current, because I never miss an election.

Voting rolls are purged of people who don't vote at least every four years. People move. People die. People change their names. If you want your registration to always be current, vote, and it will be.

If you didn't vote, register again. Preserve your rights.

[Haveadream]

20. It is imperative that all people who want to vote keep their registrations up to date

There are many who do not. And, in Ohio, if they are Democrats, they will be twice as likely as Republicans to be purged from voter rolls. In a swing state, that kind of disparity can mean the difference between a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.

In Franklin County, home to the state capital Columbus, 11 percent of voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods have been purged since 2012 due to inactivity. Only 6 percent of voters in Republican-leaning neighborhoods have been purged.


The disparity is especially stark in Hamilton County, where affluent Republican suburbs ring Cincinnati, which has one of the highest child-poverty rates in the country.

In the heavily African-American neighborhoods near downtown, more than 10 percent of registered voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012. In suburban Indian Hill, only 4 percent have been purged due to inactivity.

Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says more than 2 million voters have been purged since 2011. From 2011 to 2014, 846,000 were struck for infrequent voting and 480,000 for moving. “Of the 2 million purged, 1.2 million are questionable purges,” says State Representative Kathleen Clyde, a Democrat from Kent who has led opposition to the purge. “We shouldn’t be playing games with people’s voter registrations and fundamental right to vote. Instead we should be trying to get them to the polls.”

[glennward]

21. It's up to HC's ground-gamers to see that they do. I hope their efforts a massive!

Oh, BTW, that "grieving" mom. Sorry for her loss but she is and was a Hillary hater long before Benghazi. She just gets to vent it now.

[2banon]

22. Oh fun, it's Ground Hog Day...

again, and again, and again, and again..

sigh