A few weeks ago, a federal court declared Ohio’s purge of Harmon and more than one million other inactive voters illegal. Since then, the state and voting rights groups have been negotiating a settlement to allow most of those illegally purged to cast ballots this November. Those negotiations broke down this week, and the state submitted its own proposal to the U.S. District Court that would only let a narrow segment of purged voters to participate.
The state’s plan, which they called a “reasonable compromise,” would exclude anyone illegally purged before 2015, anyone who needs to vote by mail, and anyone who has moved since they last registered to vote. Only those purged last year who have the same address they had in 2011 and can vote in person would qualify.