Voting rights groups in Ohio are being lauded for their oversight efforts which uncovered massive errors in the state's recent bid to remove hundreds of thousands of voters from its rolls. The inspection, which was carried out primarily by nonprofit volunteers, found that more than 40,000 voters were mistakenly included on the state's to-be-deleted list.
"It definitely showed that Ohio's registration system needs a major upgrade," Jen Miller, the director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, told Cheddar on Monday. "We can't be using a policy as severe as a purge when we can't even be sure that our purge lists are correct."
In an unusual move, this past August Ohio's Secretary of State Frank LaRose publically released a list of 235,000 voters that were set to be deleted from the state's registry. By reviewing the long spreadsheet, the League of Women Voters and several other groups uncovered gross inaccuracies, including the inclusion of Miller's name.
Yet Secretary LaRose, a Republican, has praised the process, saying his office undertook the most transparent review of Ohio's voting rolls to date. "Because of our collaboration with outside organizations, the proper safeguards are in place to ensure any eligible voter will have the opportunity to have their voice heard," LaRose said in a statement after revising the list.
The list maintenance process, as it's officially called, is legally mandated in Ohio and seeks to clear the state's system of deceased residents, inactive voters, or people who have moved out of state. Voter purging, however, has become a major issue nationwide as Republican-led initiatives in several states have sought to remove voters through controversial registration requirements, which critics say primarily target minority or Democratic voters.
Other oversight groups that participated in the review include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, All Voting is Local, and the Fair Elections Center.
Tax filing season is officially upon us, just as the IRS returns to full strength following the five-week government shutdown. But tax filers should expect some turbulence along the way, said Nicole Kaeding, director of federal projects at the Tax Foundation, a tax policy think tank.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Jan. 28, 2019.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
President Trump announced on Friday that he reached a tentative deal with Democrats to reopen the government temporarily while the two sides continue to negotiate on border security. The continuing resolution would fund the government at current levels for three weeks, until Feb. 15. While Trump framed the deal as a victory, he was essentially agreeing to the same proposal that was offered by Democrats before the shutdown, which he had rejected.
President Trump's longtime ally Roger Stone was arrested Friday in connection with Robert Mueller's Russia probe. The FAA reported delays at several major airports across the U.S. because of an increase in employees taking sick leave at air traffic control centers. And Lois Backon, head of Corporate Partner Marketing for JPMorgan Chase, tells Cheddar how the bank partners with celebrities to share their financial planning tips.
Early Friday morning, FBI agents in riot gear arrested Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, at his Florida home. He was charged with five counts of making false statements, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction, related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the election.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
As the partial government shutdown enters its sixth week, it's up to moderates on both sides of the aisle to compromise on a solution to reopen the government, even if it means giving President Trump a partial victory on border funds, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told Cheddar. "Let me be clear, I'm willing to support more border security," the Virginia Democrat told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Wednesday. "But we ought to do it without these lives being held in hostage. Let's get the government open, even if it's for a few weeks, to let us negotiate."
It was an urgent warning from a group of professionals not known for a proclivity to scare the public. "In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. It is unprecedented," the statement read in part. It was issued jointly on Wednesday, from the unions representing America's air-traffic controllers, pilots, and flight attendants.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019.
