If you have not voted in the past six years but want to this November, you’d better check to see if you’re still registered. That’s what a group of Democratic state, county and city office holders advised Friday in Youngstown.
Ohio has long had laws for purging voting rolls of people who have died, moved, etc. But Secretary of State Jon Hustedhas also been ordering inactive voters off the books. Voting rights activists went to court over that. They lost, won on appeal, and the state is appealing.
Meantime, thousands of once-registered voters, aren’t anymore. Youngstown City Councilman Mike Ray, a Democrat, opposes Republican Jon Husted’s policy.
“Since when do you lose rights because you don’t use them enough? It makes no sense. You should really go out and check. And there is a website: ohiounitycoalition.org. Go on there to make sure you’re registered. The deadline is Oct. 11th.”
Ray joined other area Democrats at a news conference outside a polling place, to alert voters to the possibility that they may been taken off registration lists.
