COLUMBUS, Ohio - Want to make sure you are still registered to vote even if you haven't cast a ballot for a while? You can update your voter registration while renewing your driver's license.
In Ohio, failure to cast a ballot for two years triggers a process to remove voters from the state's rolls. Notices are sent to voters whose registration is flagged. Registration is canceled if there's no response to the notices, no votes are cast during the next four years and the voter's address isn't updated.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced last month that 124,158 inactive voter registrations from all over the state were canceled after the November 2022 election.
He said those voters could have been reinstated by voting in a primary or general election, responding to confirmation notices from their county board of elections, signing a circulated petition for a candidate or ballot issue, submitting an absentee ballot application, or responding to mailings advising them of their pending cancellation.
Updating or confirming addresses with Ohio's Bureau of Motor Vehicles also ensures that voter registrations stay active, LaRose's office said.
Driver license/ID and vehicle registration transactions completed online and in-person in Ohio always include the opportunity to update voter registration with the BMV, a BMV spokesperson said.
A person can also update their voter registration by using the BMV website to update their address, or appearing in person at a Deputy Registrar office to update their address, spokeswoman Lindsey Bohrer said. At the end of the change of address transaction they are presented with the option to have that change of address information forwarded to the Secretary of State to update their voter registration address as well. They can opt out of that update, but they are always presented with the opportunity.
Additionally, all BMV Deputy Registrar Offices are supplied with Ohio Secretary of State approved paper voter registration forms for use by individuals who may want to register to vote, or update their voter registration, even if they are not conducting business with the BMV. Those forms can be taken and submitted by the individual themselves, or if filled out in the office the BMV will submit the form to the local County Board of Elections office.
When people are updating their information at the BMV, they are asked if they'd like to register to vote or update their registration, said LaRose spokesman Rob Nichols. If they do it online, they are asked to check a box to opt-in. If they do it in person, BMV personnel make the inquiry. Nichols said there hasn't been any discussion of changing the BMV procedure to an opt-out system.
A bill introduced in the previous session of the Ohio General Assembly would have automatically sent address updates from the BMV to the secretary of state, and it would have required the BMV to notify the secretary of state of license and ID renewals that didn't have an accompanying address change. That would have been considered "voter activity" that could prevent a voter from having their registration canceled, under the bill, but it did not become law before the session concluded at the end of 2022.
The state's voter removal process survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge in 2018 from voting rights activists who questioned the legality of removing inactive voters. The 5-4 decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito concluded Ohio actually removes voters who change residence, which is allowable, and stated their "failure to return a notice and the failure to vote simply serve as evidence that a registrant has moved, not as the ground itself for removal."
The decision said that as long as the trigger for sending voter removal notices is "uniform, nondiscriminatory, and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act ... States may use whatever trigger they think best," to start the voter removal process, including the failure to vote.
Critics of the state's policy say it results in many voters showing up at the polls only to be told their registration was canceled. Last month, LaRose announced that the state had canceled more than 124,000 registrations of inactive voters - those who didn't take one of the steps necessary over a six-year period to avoid being purged from the voter rolls.
A list of the state's canceled registrations is on its Registration Readiness website.
"Cleaning up abandoned registrations from our voting rolls isn't just the right thing to do, it's the law," said a statement from LaRose. "It's a commonsense measure that makes it easier to prevent fraud and reduces the burden and costs at our county boards of elections."
Anyone whose voter registration has been canceled can be immediately reinstated by reregistering on the Secretary's registration website or by visiting their county board of elections. Updating one's address at the BMV won't reinstate a canceled registration.
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