Lawmaker: Recent ruling preserves Ohioans' most precious right – voting

YOUNGSTOWN

Two state representatives, a city councilman and a county commissioner on Friday celebrated a federal court decision that declared illegal the state’s method of purging people from voter rolls.

State Reps. Michelle Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, and Kathleen Clyde, D-Kent; Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, and Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti conducted a news conference outside St. Brendan Church, a polling place on the city’s West Side.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled last month that Ohio’s method of removing inactive voters from the rolls violated federal election law.

“Ohio voters recently won a very historic victory in court,” Clyde said.

“The greatest thing we can do in our democracy is vote; and it’s our way of telling our elected officials how we feel; and to take that away from us is just really wrong,” Hagan said.

“You shouldn’t lose your voting because you didn’t use it,” Ray said, referring to deletion of inactive voters from the rolls.

During the past five years, nearly 2 million voters have been removed from Ohio’s rolls, more than in any other state, Clyde said. That includes more than 29,000 in Mahoning County, 20,000 in Trumbull County and 13,000 in Columbiana County, she added.

Read more about the situation in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.