Getty Images photo of voters in line.
Petee Talley is the executive director of the Ohio Unity Coalition.
No matter the outcome of the 2024 election, we should never let up on the perpetual battle to ensure every eligible voter has access to the ballot. From voter purges to campaign messages that blatantly reveal insidious intentions, I understand that democracy is under attack.
Voter suppression is as old as voting and there is no sign that this tactic will subside. Over the summer, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that more than 158,000 citizens were to be removed from the voter rolls. More than half of the voters who may have been removed live in counties where “a majority of voters of color live.”
Regardless of their stated reasons, there is no justification for denying someone’s constitutional right to vote. Why should we punish voters who’ve had a life situation that caused a change in their voter registration or who missed a cycle of voting? That’s not how democracy should work.
Every state performs an annual maintenance to ensure voter registration records are accurate and updated. However, Ohio’s maintenance likely results in erroneous purges. Concerns are warranted because it’s happened before.
For example, in 2019, 20% of the list of voters to be purged were eligible to vote.
A group of civil rights organizations, including ACLU of Ohio, Common Cause Ohio, Ohio NAACP, Ohio Unity Coalition, A. Philip Randolph Institute and Ohio Organizing Collaborative believe LaRose has violated the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) by removing voters from rolls without notifying citizens ahead of the required 90 days before an election for federal office. It’s one of the reasons a study ranks Ohio’s voter removal process as one of the worst in the nation. The civil rights group says that the 2024 purge was the result of challenges made by third parties who’ve used unreliable data and have no knowledge of the voters.
The partisan insistence that there is widespread voter fraud is without merit. LaRose has acknowledged that only a sliver of people who cast votes — .0005%—voted illegally in Ohio.
Black people have always been disproportionately affected by sweeping mechanisms that make it harder to vote, from gerrymandering to voter purges. When we make progress, regression happens almost immediately.
It’s not lost on me that the first presidential election after Americans elected the first Black president in our nation’s history was conducted without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down critical provisions in the constitution that protected voters from discriminatory redistricting and made way for voter ID and other restrictive voting laws.
These efforts to quell citizens’ voices are evidence that we are powerful. If our votes didn’t matter, they wouldn’t try to take them away from us.
But nothing happens in a vacuum. There are centuries worth of policies that have led to the suppression we see today. That’s why it’s critical that we pay attention to, and quash, attempts to dissuade civic education and participation. This includes attempts to defund education, ban books, thwart DEI efforts, and require stringent rules to cast a vote.
Sadly, navigating through the many hoops to preserve our right to vote often leaves some people apathetic about the electoral process. We must energize and mobilize our communities as we continue this fight. Voting access should be expanded, not restricted. To potentially be disempowered should be alarming to every U.S. citizen.
Those who perpetuate an unjust system refuse to share power. They hoard that power. If Congress had enacted the Freedom to Vote Act, it would have ensured election security and strengthened access to ballots. We’d have a more standardized voting system that gives every voter across all states more time and access to the ballot, including regulating how states maintain and purge their voter rolls. It would also have acknowledged that citizens shouldn’t need privilege to vote. It’s a right.
People from marginalized communities who are unable to get off work before polls close or have other barriers on and before election day deserve to vote, too. Some people in our communities have disabilities, have moved or move often, need help filling out forms, or just need inspiration to vote. We must be mindful of all parts of our communities.
This campaign does not end with the election; let’s remember midterms and local elections.
A true democracy works when we all have an opportunity to participate. We must realize that power and protect it.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.