Supreme Court upholds Ohio voter registration purge policy

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has sided with the state of Ohio regarding their process for removing non-active registered voters.  

 

Reuters

[Jazmac]

This is what happens with good people do nothing.

[FloatingFatMan]

Seems an eminently sensible policy to me, and exactly what happens in the UK as well.  if you don't re-register periodically, you lose your vote.

 

How else are they meant to keep track of deadites and people who've moved?

[Jazmac]

4 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Seems an eminently sensible policy to me, and exactly what happens in the UK as well.  if you don't re-register periodically, you lose your vote.

 

How else are they meant to keep track of deadites and people who've moved?

First, this AIN'T the UK. Secondly, these people are insidious. You might remember the US senate refused to allow a vote for Eric Garland for the supreme court. I could go down the list but not pertinent to the discussion as you don't live here. Suffice it to say, just watch how this plays out.

[FloatingFatMan]

It's not necessary to live there to see a perfectly sensible option to a real problem.  Purging dead people etc from voting rolls helps prevent voting fraud.

 

Why is it so difficult for you folks to fill out a form once every couple of years?

 

 

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

I agree whole hardhearted with FloatingFatMan. The process requires you to not respond to a state provided request and 6 years of inactivity(two prior to the request and 4 after) to have your registration pulled.  This makes total sense to me, in fact, maybe it should be even sooner.  If you cannot or do not exercise your right to vote nor to you respond to a state request to verify your intentions, then your registration is pulled. All you need to do is re-register if you plan to vote again. To be honest, a person that thinks so little of the process of selecting their government (and that includes all federal, state, local, and school board etc.) that they sit out for 6 years is squandering a right many in this world would die to have. 

 

We have an election in my town at least twice a year for one thing or another as do almost all other areas I've ever lived. If you are registered to vote and you do not participate for 6 years - to any degree - means you are either dead, no longer living in the state or no longer interested in exercising your right. Seems pretty straight forward then that your registration is dropped. 

[techbeck]

1 hour ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Why is it so difficult for you folks to fill out a form once every couple of years?

Because people are lazy.  You should hear the screams I get from some users at work if they all of a sudden have to click the mouse one more time to do their job. 

[shockz]

Why should you have to register to vote more than once? If you move sure, otherwise this is just another way to suppress voter turn out. Just for fun as well... I've never had to re-register, and for awhile only voted during pres elections, someone I know (who happens to be a minority and lives in a district where his minority is actually the majority) has already had to re-register already and his polling place frequently has issues with the same touch screen panels I use in my county. The amount of shenanigans that have been happening since these systems were implemented is also telling. The same, identical system used in my precinct seems to always break in his? Creating lines out the door and around the block. Sure fire way to discourage a voter from sticking around on a cold, snowy/rainy Ohio day in November.

 

The only time you should be removed from voter roles is when you die, not because you don't vote every year/major election. i.e. certain races only voted for Obama and haven't voted since, but I'd imagine plenty are energized now after being absent for x amt of years... come to vote, then find out they were purged.

 

It's so obvious what's happening here, under the guise of preventing the non-existent voter fraud that a certain side seems to think runs rampant. Purge when death cert is generated. Problem solved, not sure why this isn't a thing already.

Edited June 11, 2018 by shockz

[FloatingFatMan]

What a load of garbage. This is nothing more than wanting to clear registrations out of the system for dead people, or people who have moved away. Your excuses are just that, excuses.  If you want to vote, then you should at the very least put some effort in to keep that vote.

[shockz]

14 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

What a load of garbage. This is nothing more than wanting to clear registrations out of the system for dead people, or people who have moved away. Your excuses are just that, excuses.  If you want to vote, then you should at the very least put some effort in to keep that vote.

What's garbage is the fact that minorities continuously get purged in heavily populated counties (i.e cuyahoga, franklin (major college campus), Hamilton, ( Montgomery-- dayton specifically), Lucas, Summit, Lake county), yet purges never occur in say Delaware county (one the most red counties in Ohio).

 

No, you have no idea what you're talking about. These purges do not occur uniformly across the state and frequently cause issues in heavily populated, downtown metro areas where these purges actually occur. Save your rage for a topic you can actually know what you're talking about on. Not to mention voter is never notified and given the change to re-register. If you purge, then purge everyone and require a re-reg every 4 years, or every census. 

Edited June 11, 2018 by shockz

[FloatingFatMan]

2 minutes ago, shockz said:

What's garbage is the fact that minorities continuously get purged in heavily populated counties (i.e cuyahoga, franklin (major college campus, Hamilton, dayton, Lucas, lake county), yet purges never occur in say Delaware county (one the most red counties in Ohio). No, you have no idea what you're talking about. These purges do not occur uniformity across the state and frequently cause issues in heavily populated, downtown metro areas where these purges actually occur. Save your rage for a topic you can actually know what you're talking about on. 

And are these purges happening because the people can't be bothered to use their vote for years (in which case purging their registration is quite understandable), or are you alleging they're removed because they're minorities?  If it's the latter, where's your evidence for that?

[shockz]

2 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

And are these purges happening because the people can't be bothered to use their vote for years (in which case purging their registration is quite understandable), or are you alleging they're removed because they're minorities?  If it's the latter, where's your evidence for that?

I already gave it. These purges only happen in blue counties with a dense minority population. They are not uniformly done across state. Not to mention voter is never notified and given the change to re-register. If you purge, then purge everyone and require a re-reg every 4 years, or every census. There's also no set time period. My friend voted in 2008 and 2012 for Obama, and in 2016 wasn't able to vote due to him being purged). Read into why this ended up in the supreme court in the first place. 

[FloatingFatMan]

So just to be clear here, you're alleging this happens because of racism?  OK, and your evidence for this is?

[shockz]

8 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

So just to be clear here, you're alleging this happens because of racism?  OK, and your evidence for this is?

Yes.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=ohio+voter+purge+racist&oq=ohio+voter+purge+racist&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l5.2384j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 plenty of reading materials.

 

The entire basis of this court case, as well as the dissenting opinion involve racism. 

 

This is voter suppression. Plain and simple. Either purge every non-voter in every county, notifying them at last known address, or nobody at all. You shouldn't be de-registered unless you move or die.

 

If someone can't make a decision on major voting issues for that particular election, should they still go and cast a blank ballot? Seems ridiculous. 

Edited June 11, 2018 by shockz

[Memphis]

40 minutes ago, shockz said:

Yes.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=ohio+voter+purge+racist&oq=ohio+voter+purge+racist&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l5.2384j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 plenty of reading materials.

 

The entire basis of this court case, as well as the dissenting opinion involve racism. 

 

This is voter suppression. Plain and simple. Either purge every non-voter in every county, notifying them at last known address, or nobody at all. You shouldn't be de-registered unless you move or die.

 

If someone can't make a decision on major voting issues for that particular election, should they still go and cast a blank ballot? Seems ridiculous. 

All you did was link a generic Google search on the matter. That's not what he was asking for. 

[FloatingFatMan]

48 minutes ago, shockz said:

This is voter suppression. Plain and simple. Either purge every non-voter in every county, notifying them at last known address, or nobody at all. You shouldn't be de-registered unless you move or die.

 

If someone can't make a decision on major voting issues for that particular election, should they still go and cast a blank ballot? Seems ridiculous. 

Which is the whole point.  If they're not informed you've moved or died, how else are they to know? Do they leave you registered forever, so that someone else can use your vote?  Of course not.  De-registering is the simplest and easiest way to fix this, and re-registering should be no harder than a 5 minute form.

 

Over here, they send you a card every couple of years. You just sign it and send it back, postage prepaid... Takes 2 minutes, tops.

[shockz]

5 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Which is the whole point.  If they're not informed you've moved or died, how else are they to know? \

Do you not have death certificates in UK? Here once they are issued everything is basically closed... there have been more than one cases were these were issued by mistake and it ruined the persons finances, credit, social security, everything. Getting it undone is not a simple task. There's no reason as to why when a death cert is issued that they're also purged from a voter roll

14 minutes ago, sidroc said:

All you did was link a generic Google search on the matter. That's not what he was asking for. 

Sure it was, the linked articles with in that search (most only a few hours old due to this news) provided plenty of materials to assert my statement. Including the dissenting opinion from the Supreme Court. Why should I have to rehash and copy and paste? He wanted information, I provided it, and he can come up with is own conclusions from there.

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

57 minutes ago, shockz said:

If someone can't make a decision on major voting issues for that particular election, should they still go and cast a blank ballot? Seems ridiculous. 

You see, this is however exactly what voting is for, making decisions. OK, you don't want to vote for president, fine. How about your Mayor? What about judges or propositions? What about state legislators or local council members? What about school board members? Those positions are also on the ballot. You see, registering to vote means you intend to, ya know, VOTE. If you do not vote and the state sends you a card asking if you still live here and you don't answer and you continue to never vote for anything why did you register in the first place?  What is the purpose of your registration?  

[techbeck]

10 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Over here, they send you a card every couple of years. You just sign it and send it back, postage prepaid... Takes 2 minutes, tops.

Lots of other things you have to re-register for if the account or info goes stale. I don't see why this is suck a big issue.  More like people do not like it because it is an inconvenience to them.

[shockz]

6 minutes ago, Zag L. said:

You see, this is however exactly what voting is for, making decisions. OK, you don't want to vote for president, fine. How about your Mayor? What about judges or propositions? What about state legislators or local council members? What about school board members? You see, registering to vote means you intend to, ya know, VOTE. If you do not vote and the state sends you a card asking if you still live here and you don't answer and you continue to never vote for anything why did you register in the first place?  What is the purpose of your registration?  

And? If someone had no input for that particular voting cycle, that doesn't mean they won't next time? I also know people who are college students, and don't vote in local elections (i.e mayor/judges), but will for either state or presidential. Should they be purged because as a college student they don't care about local issues (since they aren't a permanent resident) but do care about their state and national elections? People who voted in 2012 even had issues in 2016. We don't even take censuses that frequently. And again, why did 80 year old Martha in red Delaware county, who didn't vote in 2012 still able to cast a vote in 2016, but someone from downtown Cleveland, who did vote in 2012, suddenly find themselves not on the voter roll?

3 minutes ago, techbeck said:

Lots of other things you have to re-register for if the account or info goes stale. I don't see why this is suck a big issue.  More like people do not like it because it is an inconvenience to them.

And lots of those things aren't a right. Voting however is. 

[ccoltmanm]

I love that he just searched it in Google and added "racist" at the end of it -- then went on to say look at all those sources!

 

Talk about data picking!

[satukoro]

I think it's funny people are making a big deal out of this. This helps purge useless entries in the list of eligible voters.

 

More importantly, you can register to vote whenever your voter registrars are at your Town/City Hall. Alternatively, you can pick up a form outside their office door, online (per availability laws). Or if you procrastinate and don't do it on one of the hundreds of days before an election, you can always register the day of an election by visiting your local voter registrar (they are required to have a representative at their office or representative location, ex: polling place).

 

Your local governments want you to vote, people. They make it easy and provide resources 24/7 to get you to registered one way or another.

Keep in mind, this doesn't mean I'm a voting activist or anything. I just work for a municipality and holy crap, the effort that goes into election day is ridiculous.

[shockz]

4 minutes ago, ccoltmanm said:

I love that he just searched it in Google and added "racist" at the end of it -- then went on to say look at all those sources!

 

Talk about data picking!

Well considering that the question proposed by floating was why this would be racist, what else should I have put? I can't hold someones hand when searching. Data picking? Nonsense. Would you have liked me to copy and paste the Google links into here so I could spoon feed them to you? 

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

8 minutes ago, shockz said:

And? If someone had no input for that particular voting cycle, that doesn't mean they won't next time? I also know people who are college students, and don't vote in local elections (i.e mayor/judges), but will for either state or presidential. Should they be purged because as a college student they don't care about local issues (since they aren't a permanent resident) but do care about their state and national elections? People who voted in 2012 even had issues in 2016. We don't even take censuses that frequently. And again, why did 80 year old Martha in red Delaware county, who didn't vote in 2012 still able to cast a vote in 2016, but someone from downtown Cleveland, who did vote in 2012, suddenly find themselves not on the voter roll?

And lots of those things aren't a right. Voting however is. 

The fact is, they didnt vote, they didnt respond to the state asking them if they still live where they said they do and then continued to not vote. Are they just not voting or did they die or move? The process is sound and violates no federal election laws. After spending almost 2 years in the Cincinnati area I can honestly say your problem is Ohio and you know how to solve that? Vote!

[shockz]

18 minutes ago, Zag L. said:

The fact is, they didnt vote, they didnt respond to the state asking them if they still live where they said they do and then continued to not vote. Are they just not voting or did they die or move? The process is sound and violates no federal election laws. After spending almost 2 years in the Cincinnati area I can honestly say your problem is Ohio and you know how to solve that? Vote!

The fact is, they were singled out by the state based on their residence and county. Simple as that. You want to purge voter rolls for inactivity, then do it uniformly and state wide. These purges were not applied consistently and targeted democratic strongholds, disproportionately affecting voter turn out in favor for Republicans. We all know that won't be happening anytime soon though, and this tactic will be used to continuing to disrupt democratic turnout in minority counties and college populated areas.

Edited June 11, 2018 by shockz