Supreme Court to rule in Ohio voter purge case News
Supreme Court to rule in Ohio voter purge case

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday granted certiorari [order list, PDF] in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute [SCOTUSblog case page], an Ohio voting case. The suit centers on Ohio’s voter registration list maintenance process, which sends confirmation notices to inactive voters and removes them after failure to confirm and failure to vote the following two general federal elections. The case turns on whether the maintenance policies violate the National Voter Registration Act or the Help America Vote Act [materials].

Voting rights, on both the national and state level, have been an issue in the US for decades and voting issues have gone to court in many states in just the past year. Earlier this month the Maine Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that the state’s newly enacted legislation providing for a ranked-choice voting system conflicted with the state’s constitution. In March seven convicted felons filed suit [JURIST report] alleging Florida’s process of restoring voting rights to felons is unconstitutionally arbitrary. Earlier that month a three-judge panel of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled [JURIST report] that the boundaries of three voting districts violated the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Also in March the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that Virginia’s redistricting scheme must be examined for racial bias.