This is the worst possible situation for voting rights advocates — and really anyone who believes in true democracy. Thanks to Mitch McConnell gaming the Supreme Court, the Scalia clone Gorsuch was the deciding vote on this massive case:
This will give the green light to GOP lawmakers across the country to purge voter rolls, and we know they’ll take it — just look at the gross gerrymandering they’ve already done across the country. State governments and national government is at risk here — we know they’ll target people of color and working people whenever possible.
The first immediate thing to do is work to elect progressive Democratic Secretaries of State in every state. Obviously, there are MANY important steps to take, including organizing voter registration drives and working like hell to GOTV. But this is something you can do today.
In Ohio, where this will be absolutely crucial, the seat will be open. State Rep. Kathleen Clyde is running for team blue — please pitch in whatever you can for her campaign in what will definitely be a nasty race, with so much of Ohio’s government up for grabs this fall.
Here is her campaign page.
And here’s more on the catastrophic decision, via Slate:
To test the limits of the NVRA’s safeguards, however, Ohio Republicans created another process through which to remove voters. Under this “supplemental process,” Ohio identifies voters who may have moved based exclusively on their failure to engage in any voter activity during a single federal election. It then begins the purge process by sending these voters a notice in the mail alerting them to the possibility that they might be removed. If they fail to return the notice, and do not vote in the next two federal elections, Ohio removes them from the rolls.
It’s easy to see how Ohio’s supplemental process could lead to the purge of countless infrequent but valid voters. Americans often sit out multiple elections before returning to the polls, and Ohio’s notification card can be easily mistaken for junk mail. Under this process, you may get thrown off the rolls simply because you skipped three consecutive federal elections—say, two midterm elections and one presidential election—and overlooked a letter in your mailbox. Fearing mass purges in Ohio, voting rights advocates sued to block the supplemental process, and in 2016, the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio’s practice ran afoul of the NVRA….
Now that the court has blessed Ohio’s purges, more GOP-controlled states are likely to adopt similar proposals. The evidence from Ohio indicates that this process will primarily purge minority and low-income voters. It may well swing close elections in the future, and will undoubtedly lead to chaos and confusion at the polls. Thanks to the Supreme Court, myriad citizens will try to cast a ballot in the years to come—and learn that the state has quietly stripped them of their constitutional right to vote.;