Help End Ohio's Voter Purges: Support Automated Voter Registration
Ohio wrongfully purges thousands of active voters from the rolls each year, but there is a solution to this ongoing problem - Automated Voter Registration.
In 2019 a total of more than 460,000 voters in Ohio were claimed to be “inactive”, deceased, or duplicated, and purged from the voter rolls. In September 2019, 41,000 voters were wrongfully put on the list to be purged off the rolls. 1 in 5 people set to be purged should not have been on the list, and had their right to vote put in jeopardy by a flawed voter registration system.
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The Ohio voter registration system is flawed because it does not use information from government organizations around the state like the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) and the National Change of Address
Database to update voter rolls, but instead relies solely on…
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Voting in elections
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Completing political petitions
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Responding to notices sent to a residence (which are often missed, especially in cases of change of address)
Just like Ohio’s voter registration system,
Ohio’s method for voter purges is flawed. Here's how…
Ohio’s voter purges have a slight political skewing effect
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Recent purges have been found to disproportionately affect young, democratic, Black, and low-income voters.
Voter discrimination plays a role in increasing voter purges
Nationally, counties with a history of voter discrimination have purged people from voter rolls at much higher rates than other counties.
Many voters who have been purged do not even realize until Election Day
Ohio's method for voter purging denies hundreds of thousands of people their right to vote, when they shouldn't have been on the voter purge list in the first place.
Bottom line: Ohio's Voter registration is prone to error, leading to wrongful purges of active Ohio voters. There is a solution to Ohio’s outdated voter rolls info: Automated Voter Registration.
What is Automated Voter Registration?
Automated Voter Registration (AVR) is an opt-out electronic voter registration policy that updates Ohio voter registration whenever you interact with any government agency.
​This policy makes voter registration more streamlined and simple because of two major differences from non-automated systems:
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AVR is an opt-out process as opposed to an opt-in process.
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AVR is electronically updated and sent to the board of elections not mailed on paper.
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The Ohio Voter Registration system is unnecessarily outdated, unsecure, inconsistent, and inefficient.
There is a plethora of information put into Ohio’s statewide systems like the BMV and the National Change of Address Database, that could be used to accurately and easily update voter registration instead of solely using voter information.
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So why don't we just automatically and electronically update the Ohio voter rolls right from the computer? That is exactly what Automated Voter Registration does!
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AVR uses readily available information to electronically update voter registration immediately, which would effectively eliminate the need for voter purges because voter information would be more accurate.
Automated Voter Registration takes Ohio's voter registration system that SOC Frank LaRose describes as, “Unacceptably messy, (LaRose)” and “prone to error, (LaRose)” and makes it more intuitive and useful for Ohio voters.
Here are some other benefits of Automated Voter Registration…​
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Voter Registration rates increase
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Racial and socioeconomic diversity of the electorate increases
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Reduced administrative costs
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Racial and socioeconomic diversity of the electorate increases
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Reduced administrative costs
In summation Automated Voter Registration would help mediate the need for wrongful voter purges in Ohio, by increasing voter registration rates and voter turnout rates, especially among groups with low voter turnout rates.