Clyde has been a significant vocal opponent to Husted's push to purge so-called inactive voters from Ohio voter rolls. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's decision that Husted had the right to purge voters from voter rolls, but last week the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take on Husted's appeal.
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“Ohio has led the country in de-registering voters, or purging them from the rolls,” said Clyde. “Over 2 million Ohioans have been purged in the last six years and this lawsuit was challenging a group of those voters that were purged simply because they didn’t vote in every election, or because they moved with in Ohio. Those are not reasons to disqualify somebody’s voter registration or eligibility.”
Husted has defended his position by saying he is “maintaining accurate voter rolls is a priority” as it “increases election integrity and voter confidence.” He said more than 400,000 of those names were of deceased voters.
“Maintaining the integrity of the voter rolls is essential to conducting an election with efficiency and integrity,” Husted said last week when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal. “I remain confident that once the justices review this case they will rule to uphold the decades-old process that both Republicans and Democrats have used in Ohio to maintain our voter rolls as consistent with federal law.”
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Clyde said Husted has “decided to use more taxpayer dollars to appeal” and the case “will drag on for another year.”
“And in that time we don’t have an answer as to whether we can help these voters and do the right thing, which would be to re-instate them to the rolls,” she said.
One answer to purging voter rolls is an automatic registration system. She introduced Ohio House Bill 14 which would require people to opt out of voting rather than opting in.
“We see that states that have more modern and inclusive voter registration laws actually have higher turnout,” said Clyde. “Because one thing you’ll find is there are people on Election Day that wanted to participate but didn’t get registered 30 days before Election Day.
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Eight states and the District of Columbia have approved automatic voter registration, and 33 states — including Ohio — are considering automatic registration legislation, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Clyde said states with same-day registration — known as "Golden Week" when Ohio also had same-day registration before Republican Ohio lawmakers eliminated it — "have experienced higher voter turnout and I think that's the direction we need to move towards in Ohio."
While candidates will campaign on issues that they believe will matter to the public, “The trick is that the Secretary of State’s duties are not always the kinds of duties that engender public interest,” said Mark C. Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University.
Issues like voter roll purging, early voting and voter registration matter and are likely to energize strong partisan voters, however, he said, “they may not grab the general public all that much.”
“There are relatively few people who will cast impassioned votes for Secretary of State,” Smith said. “To a degree, the candidates’ fortunes in the race will hinge on factors well outside their control. The gubernatorial campaign will matter. The political climate within the state will matter. The relative popularity of their parties will matter.”
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