“The only question before us is whether it violates federal law. It does not.”
Win McNamee/Getty Images
On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld Ohio election rules allowing the removal of people who haven’t voted in two years and don’t confirm their eligibility from the voter rolls.
According to the 5-4 ruling, the state’s “supplemental process” does not violate the National Voter Registration Act.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion that the case was not “to decide whether Ohio’s supplemental process is the ideal method for keeping its voting rolls up to date. The only question before us is whether it violates federal law. It does not.”
The supplemental process enables states to purge names from federal voting rolls after individuals don’t vote within a two year period and also fail to respond to a notice from the government over the next four years.
“The notice in question here warns recipients that unless they take the simple and easy step of mailing back the pre-addressed, postage prepaid card — or take the equally easy step of updating their information online — their names may be removed from the voting rolls if they do not vote during the next four years,” Justice Alito wrote .
“It was Congress’s judgment that a reasonable person with an interest in voting is not likely to ignore notice of this sort,” he added.
However, civil rights groups have argued that the practice discourages minority turnout.
Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, put it bluntly: “The Supreme Court got this one wrong. The right to vote is not ‘use it or lose it.”
“This decision will fuel the fire of voter suppressors across the country who want to make sure their chosen candidates win reelection, no matter what the voters say,” he added.
The League of Women Voters and the Brennan Center for Justice released the following statement: “Ohio is the only state that commences such a process based on the failure to vote in a single federal election cycle.”
“Literally every other state uses a different, and more voter-protective, practice,” the group added.
William is a Senior Congressional and Breaking News Reporter for IJR. Prior to that, he covered politics and breaking news at AOL.com, leading the sit… more
