CLEVELAND—Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that Secretary of State Jon Husted can no longer purge infrequent voters from the rolls. The Court agreed with the ACLU of Ohio and Demos that removing voters does in fact violate federal law.
“We are very happy that the court found that Secretary Husted’s process of purging voters in Ohio is illegal and must stop,” said Mike Brickner, Senior Policy Director at the ACLU. “We don’t believe that any voters should be removed from the rolls simply because they haven’t voted in a few elections.”
The Sixth Circuit sent the case back to the federal district court to fashion a remedy. “We hope that a plan will emerge soon to allow the tens of thousands of voters illegally purged from the rolls to vote in the upcoming presidential election,” said Brickner. “It is critical that both election officials and voters know the rules far in advance of November 8th.”
“Too many people never register to vote because of a past criminal conviction,” Brickner added. “We want to be sure they know they have the right to vote and they will be able to cast their ballot in this year’s election.”
Read the decision in A. Philip Randolph Institute, et al v. Husted.
###
