© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000174-c556-d691-a376-cdd69e710000

Ohio Rep. Kathleen Clyde Sponsors Bill to End Voter "Purging"

Photo of Kathleen Clyde
The Ohio House of Representatives

A Democratic state lawmaker is sponsoring a bill that would prevent Ohio's Secretary of State from removing many people from voter rolls. 

Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports.

Ohio Rep. Kathleen Clyde of Kent says her bill would not allow the state’s top elections official to "purge" voters for failing to vote often enough or failing to update their addresses.

“In Ohio, in the last five years, roughly 2 million voters have been purged," said Clyde. "This is the most aggressive purging in the country.”

Clyde says minority voters have been disproportionately purged.

In a written statement, Secretary of State Jon Husted says he’s brought the state into compliance with the national Voting Rights Act. He says he’s sent reminders to 61,000 voters who needed to update records and says passage of Clyde’s bill would block the office from doing that in the future.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.