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Secretary Of State Still Awaiting Final Results On Returned Registrations From Deleted Voters

Voters cast ballots at Franklin County's early vote center in Columbus in 2018.
Karen Kasler
Voters cast ballots at Franklin County's early vote center in Columbus in 2018.

Today is the first day of early voting for the May primary – which means yesterday was the last day to register to vote. And though turnout in off-year primaries is especially low, there may be those who will try to vote but find they’ve been removed from the rolls. 

In February, Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office sent 270,000 registration forms to voters told by county boards of elections they’d been removed for not updating their addresses and not voting in the last six years.

LaRose said then it would cost up to $75,000, though voters can register and update registrations online for free – and says now he still believes in the outreach.

“If that mailing results in just one or two more Ohioans being registered to vote then I think it’s worth it, but I think the numbers are going to be more than that," LaRose says.

LaRose says he doesn’t have any numbers on how many forms were returned as undeliverable, but says the vast majority likely went to duplicate addresses or those of people who’ve died or moved out of state.

LaRose and his wife cast their early vote for the primary today.

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.
Karen Kasler
Contact Karen at 614/578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.
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