Ohio’s Voter Purge Law Has Been in Place for 24 Years

Surprised to learn that?  I know I was.  I discovered that from Justin Levitt’s blog post, here, which says:

This is not a new piece of voter suppression devised by current elections officials: Ohio put the process in place 24 years ago, and it has been implemented by both Rs and Ds.

That sent me back to the plaintiff’s brief, which indeed complains about Ohio “retaining” this system, not about Ohio’s adoption of this system. Nor is there any claim I could see that Ohio has suddenly started enforcing this system more aggressively.  Indeed, Justin’s criticism is that in the last 24 years, more effective means of maintaining accurate lists have been developed.

None of this affects the issue of what the proper interpretation of the statute is.  But if the media coverage of this case has left you with the impression this was a recently enacted law, that’s wrong.

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