I See Dead People: Ohio Culls 155,000 Names on Voter Rolls in Advance of November Election

Maintaining voter registration rolls used to be a boring, non-controversial housekeeping task done by bureaucrats.

But in recent years, it's become an issue of "voting rights." Apparently, once you sign up to vote, not even death should keep you from voting. And if you moved out of state, maybe you might move back -- in which case your name cannot be purged from the voter rolls.

And does anyone really care if you're a citizen of the United States or not in order to vote?

That's what Democrats think, anyway. It's racist to police voter registration rolls. It's a Republican trick to remove blacks and Hispanics from the rolls and prevent them from voting.

Everyone knows that.

The state of Ohio has come under fire for removing the names of 155,000 people "who moved to a new address, failed to update their registration and did not engage in voter activity − such as casting a ballot − over the past four years," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose also announced that registrations that had previously been flagged but not removed were included.

"Every Ohioan, regardless of their political views, should care about accurate voter rolls," LaRose said. "Diligent list maintenance helps prevent voter fraud and ensures the voice of the voters is heard on Election Day."

The state also removed the names of nearly 500 non-citizens who registered to vote but were ineligible. 

“I swore an oath to uphold the constitution of our state, and that document clearly states that only United States citizens can participate in Ohio elections,” LaRose said in a press release announcing the news. “That means I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country aren’t voting. If or when they do become citizens, I’ll be the first one to congratulate them and welcome them to the franchise, but until then the law requires us to remove ineligible registrations to prevent illegal voting.”

The latest removals announced today include individuals who confirmed their non-citizen status to the BMV, and a subsequent review of the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database system has confirmed them to be non-citizens. These individuals failed to respond to notices from the Secretary of State’s office asking that they either confirm their citizenship status or cancel their registration. Any individual whose registration is removed pursuant to the Secretary’s directive can submit a provisional ballot, which will be counted upon proof of citizenship.

“I want to give these folks the benefit of the doubt and say that most of them didn’t intend to break the law,” said LaRose. “We want to make sure a mistaken registration doesn’t become an illegal vote. We also want to make sure that lawfully registered citizens can participate seamlessly in the process, especially if their citizenship status changed recently.”

This commonsense and necessary action was criticized by some for being too hasty and because Ohio doesn't participate in a multi-state voter registration program.

"The best way to keep our voter rolls up to date is automatic voter registration," said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. "We would like to see more transparency so we can better understand who was removed for not voting in recent elections. If we can learn that, we can better design nonpartisan voter education programs that increase turnout."

You're not going to cure voter apathy by getting a peek at how the state of Ohio culls its registrations. Besides, the overwhelming majority of people who have been removed from the voter rolls moved and failed to update their registration or moved out of state. More "transparency" isn't going to fix that.