How to find out if you are still registered to vote before Ohio’s purge

Ahead of the November election, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has instructed officials to purge inactive voters from the rolls. Here is what you need to do to find out if you are still registered — plus how you can stay registered.

“It’s very important to vote, got a lot of decisions to make,” Cuyahoga County voter Mary Jo Boehnlein said.

Boehnlein votes in every election. But not everyone does, like Cynthia Hatcher.

“Not the preliminaries,” Hatcher said. “Mostly November is when I really look forward to voting.”

Now, county boards of elections are trying to warn the infrequent voters to check their registration.

“A voter purge is just really an opportunity for us to keep our voter rolls clean,” ​Tony Kaloger, the deputy director of the Cuyahoga County BOE, said.

LaRose just ordered local officials to start removing inactive voters, and the officials must have a list of people who they intend to remove by May 21. By May 31, final “registration readiness notice” mailers must be sent out.

Kaloger explained this happens every few years. If you change your mailing address and don’t vote for four years, your voter status could be canceled. Even if you don’t move but you don’t vote for six years — you could also be purged.

“There’s a lot of checks and balances to make sure that people who are registered, who do live in Cuyahoga County, do not unfairly or prematurely get canceled,” he said.

Boards of elections will send out mail numerous times to try to confirm addresses and voter status. If they receive a response, the voter stays on the rolls. Voters can also go to the local office or give them a call to ask about status.

Although he didn’t last year, LaRose is supposed to put out a list of everyone he is removing from the rolls before the voter registration deadline. A registration search is available on the secretary of state website to look up.

There has been constant controversy over voter purges.

A viewer reached out to say they received a letter in the mail claiming that someone in his household wasn’t registered to vote. It came from the nonpartisan group Center for Voter Information (CVI) and the Voter Participation Center (VPC), which informed the voters that abortion rights were on the ballot this fall.

The man who received this letter has been a registered Democratic voter for decades, along with his wife, who the letter was directed toward, according to the viewer. The couple provided documentation, which was then verified as legitimate by WEWS/OCJ. This could have come from a voter purge.

Hatcher said this isn’t fair and is urging everyone to make sure they are still on the rolls.

“Why should someone else make that judgment call just because they haven’t showed up?” she asked. “There might be some reason that they didn’t or they couldn’t make it. Everyone should have the right to vote.”

For those who have been removed from the voter rolls, the deadline to re-register is Oct. 7.

Any person whose voter registration has been purged can immediately reinstate their ability to vote by reregistering on the Secretary’s registration website here or by visiting their county board of elections.

If you believe you or a loved one has been wrongfully removed from the voter list, please email News 5 Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau at [email protected].

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.