CINCINNATI -- "Use it or lose it" goes the old saying, and the same principle applies to voting in Ohio.
Some 30,000 infrequent voters have been removed from voter registration lists in Hamilton County since 2012, a Reuters analysis reports Thursday.
All states periodically clean up voter lists, but the article claims only a handful remove registered voters simply for not voting on a regular basis. The article states that Ohio voters who don't vote in three straight federal elections (a six-year timeframe) are wiped off the rolls.
Reuters claims Ohio's policy "appears to be helping Republicans in the state's largest metropolitan areas."
"That's because residents of relatively affluent Republican-leaning neighborhoods are more likely to vote in both congressional elections and presidential contests, historical turnouts show. Democrats are less likely to vote in mid-term elections and thus are more at risk of falling off the rolls.
In the three biggest counties, at least 144,000 voters have been removed, the Reuters analysis found. The statewide total is unclear. Each of the state’s 88 counties manages its own voter rolls, which generally are not made public.
Unlike other voting-rights disputes that have sparked protests and lawsuits, the practice doesn't appear to be driven by one specific party. Both Republican and Democratic officials in Ohio have purged inactive voters over the past 20 years."
The analysis further stated that neighborhoods with high numbers of poor, African-American residents are hit the hardest.
Read the full article here for more details on what Cincinnati-area organizations are doing to ensure underrepresented groups are registered to vote.
Why Democrats are more at risk than Republicans from Ohio’s voter cleansing: https://t.co/6T6qMWYVE2 pic.twitter.com/E2V8HH6DwL
— Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) June 2, 2016
