The conservative justices didn’t just back Ohio’s tactics, they also gave a green light to other states that will want to do the same thing.
U. S. Navy veteran Larry Harmon was a registered voter in Ohio, and he voted in the 2004 and 2008 election cycles. Uninspired by his choices in 2010,2012, and 2014, Harmon sat those elections out.
What he didn’t know until 2015, however, when he tried to vote on a ballot initiative, is that his home state had un-registered him, striking his name from Ohio’s voter rolls because he hadn’t participated in a while. The Buckeye State’s Republican-led government has been especially aggressive in these voter purges in recent years, which as many observers have noted, tend to disproportionately affect minority and low-income communities.
Ohio’s practice faced a test at the U. S. Supreme Court, and in a 5-4 ruling, the court’s conservative majority sided with the state. NBC News’ Pete Williams reported:
The decision, which is online here, reversed a federal appeals court ruling that said Ohio’s practices violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
The four justices chosen by Democratic presidents dissented, though Sonia Sotomayor seemed especially displeased by the five-member conservative majority.
Given Ohio’s electoral significance – it’s often seen as one of the nation’s largest swing states, and every successful presidential ticket has won Ohio in the last 14 presidential election cycles – today’s ruling is an important setback for voting rights. But what may matter more is what comes next.
Because the conservative justices didn’t just back Ohio’s tactics, they also gave a green light to other states that will want to do the same thing. As the NBC News report added, “At least a dozen other politically conservative states said they would adopt a similar practice if Ohio prevailed,” which it did.
