Appeals court rules Ohio voter purge illegal
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that Ohio’s purge of names from voting rolls violates federal law.
{mosads}In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court reversed the lower court’s ruling, sending the case back for remedy, CNN reported.
According to the ruling, the purge would affect thousands of Ohio voters who don’t vote regularly “even if he or she did not move and otherwise remains eligible to vote.”
The decision is a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio that has spearheaded the campaign to defeat the practice.
“We are very happy that the court found that process of purging voters in Ohio is illegal and must stop,” said Mike Brickner, Senior Policy Director at the ACLU. “We don’t believe that any voters should be removed from the rolls simply because they haven’t voted in a few elections.”
According to Secretary of State Jon Husted, who is a strong supporter of the “Supplemental Process” method, the long-standing practice was used to suppress voter fraud.
“It is one thing to strike down a longstanding procedure; it is another to craft a workable remedy. To that end, if the final resolution requires us to reinstate voting eligibility to individuals who have died or moved out of Ohio, we will appeal,” he added.
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