Voting Rights Groups Sue to Protect Ohio Voters from Illegal Purges

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Today, the League of Women Voters of Ohio (LWVO) and CAIR-Northern Ohio filed a federal lawsuit challenging Ohio’s Senate Bill (SB) 293 for violating the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. This new law puts eligible voters — particularly naturalized citizens — at risk of being purged from the voter rolls, without meaningful prior notice, even right up to Election Day.

The plaintiffs are represented by Campaign Legal Center, the ACLU Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Ohio. The advocacy organizations filed this lawsuit after Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose declined to correct violations of the NVRA that were outlined in a letter they sent to him on January 22, 2026.

SB 293 directs Ohio’s secretary of state to systematically check and compare state voter registration data with the citizenship records of the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system. Individuals flagged under these citizenship-check requirements will have their voter registrations cancelled without prior notice or any opportunity to respond. These purges will take place at least once a month, continuing right up through elections.

This is problematic for three reasons:

• The citizenship data in these databases is outdated: The law directs the secretary of state to use databases that do not contain up-to-date citizenship information, which will lead to eligible voters, especially naturalized citizens, being wrongfully purged from the voter rolls.

• The law permits these removals on the eve of an election: This violates the NVRA’s prohibition on systemic reviews of voter data during the 90-day quiet period before an election.

• The law does not provide enough protection to ensure wrongly removed voters will be able to fix their registration in time to vote: SB 293 doesn’t require that the voter receive notice in time to clarify their citizenship status before being cancelled. This means that voters may not be able to correct this error in time to vote. This deprivation of the right to vote violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Instead of welcoming new voters who have gone to great lengths to participate in our democracy, SB 293 creates an unnecessary, discriminatory hurdle for naturalized citizens to cast their ballots,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “Most Ohioans believe that democracy works best when we can all participate freely and fairly. That's why we’re headed to court — to ensure that all eligible Ohioans can trust that their registrations won’t be cancelled.”

“Eligible voters should be encouraged — not burdened — when exercising their fundamental right to vote,” said Caren Short, director of legal and research of the League of Women Voters. “The League is fighting discriminatory laws across the country that target naturalized citizens and other historically disenfranchised communities. These laws only serve to weaken our democracy and erode confidence in our elections. We’re proud to fight back against SB 293 in court.”

“SB 293 is a direct threat to the fundamental right to vote and will disproportionately harm naturalized citizens across Ohio,” said Faten Husni Odeh, executive director of CAIR-Northern Ohio. “Naturalized citizens have fulfilled every legal requirement and sworn an oath to this country; singling them out with new barriers is discriminatory and unacceptable. Under the guise of election integrity, this law undermines our democracy, and CAIR-Northern Ohio is proud to stand alongside the ACLU and the League of Women Voters to challenge this voter suppression and defend equal access to the ballot for every eligible Ohioan.”

“Ohio’s new law continues a troubling trend of undermining the freedom to vote through unnecessary, error-prone and unlawful voter purges,” said Anna Baldwin, director of voting rights litigation at Campaign Legal Center. “This law will unjustly target naturalized citizens in the state through the reliance on faulty data that disproportionately impacts these new citizens and violates the National Voter Registration Act. We already have strict laws in place that ensure only U.S. citizens can register and vote in federal elections. We’re asking the court to prevent Ohio from enforcing this law in a way that violates the NVRA and respects Americans’ due process rights, so that all Americans can make their voices heard in the upcoming election.”

“Ohio’s SB 293 is an unlawful purge program masquerading as election integrity,” said Davin Rosborough, deputy director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “By relying on outdated and inaccurate citizenship databases, the state is setting up eligible voters—especially naturalized citizens—to be wrongly stripped from the rolls. Eligible Ohioans should not have to discover on Election Day that they can no longer participate.”

"Senate Bill 293's requirement that there be systematic voter purges is discriminatory and unlawful and it threatens to disenfranchise perfectly eligible voters," said Freda Levenson, chief legal officer of the ACLU of Ohio. "Using manifestly unreliable data to cull our voter rolls doesn’t protect the integrity of our elections - it harms it. Secretary LaRose's refusal to correct SB 293's NVRA violations outlined in our letter was extremely disappointing. To uphold the law and protect democracy in our state, we are left with no other option than litigation."

Read the complaint.