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Inactive voters purged from polls

123 views · Published 15 August 2016 · 1:57 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2016 · News & Politics

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CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Some people who head to the polls to vote in November might discover they're no longer registered to vote.

Ohio voters who have been inactive for six years have been purged from voter rolls. Notifications were sent out to voters after two years of inactivity but they weren't notified when they were actually eliminated from the rolls. It's been that way for a while and it was challenged at the federal level and upheld, but an appeal was recently argued in Cincinnati.

Opponents of the purging process said it was unfair to voters as it stood.

"What some people are concerned about, and I'm one of them, is that we purge too many people and we purge people too quickly simply on the basis that they haven't voted in a while," said Tim Burke, Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair.

The chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party, Alex Triantafilou, thought the effort to overhaul the system was politically motivated.

"Voting is a right. It's a significant right and people have an obligation to keep us apprised of their address and to stay active in the process and if they're not active in the process, they're going to be purged from the rolls," said Triantafilou.

More than 14,000 voters were purged from the rolls in Hamilton County in 2015. To check to see if you're still registered to vote, call your county's board of elections website.

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