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.
On Between Bells: Talking to kids about gun violence, Dallas Mavericks under fire, restaurant servers fight tip-pooling laws, and more. With Eater, Parents Magazine, and Popular Science.
The way restaurant workers get paid could be changing. The Department of Labor has proposed making tip-pooling legal again.
The Parkland shootings are forcing parents to grapple with how to talk to their children about gun violence. Parents Magazine's Liz Vaccariello joins Cheddar to discuss how to approach these challenging conversations.
Gersh Kuntzman, deputy politics editor at Newsweek, discusses President Trump's request for the Justice Department to ban bump stocks, devices that turn legal guns into machine guns.
In the aftermath of the Parkland mass shooting that left 17 dead and many more wounded, lawmakers are seeking solutions to prevent further tragedies. Cheddar spoke with RNC spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany about how Republicans plan to handle the controversial issue.
The actor and producer's new documentary "Survivors Guide To Prison" looks at the system through the eyes of wrongly-convicted prisoners. Arquette hopes the documentary will inspire change.
Marijuana advocates are awaiting a federal judge's decision on its challenge against federal marijuana laws. Five plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the DEA and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It challenges the listing of marijuana as a schedule I drug, which classifies the drug as having no medical use and it cannot be legally prescribed. Jose Belen, U.S. Army combat veteran and one of the plaintiffs on this case, and attorney Joseph Bondy explain why they were inspired to fight for this cause.
This Changes Things: Advice for the executives and leaders of tomorrow, brought to you by American Express OPEN. On Between Bells: All the president's tweets, Black Panther's box office record, and more. With The Young Turks, The Daily Caller, Hollywood Life, and Fast Company.
Diversity in America: it's a story of slow progress beginning with the Civil Rights Movement that continues to this day. Two events that set these changes into motion were the protests at San Francisco State and Cornell University in the late sixties. The new documentary "Agents of Change" looks at how the strikes have impacted America 50 years later.
President Trump has signaled that he may be open to improvements to the federal background check system following the Stoneman Douglas shooting. The Young Turks' Emma Vigeland and Daily Caller's Nick Givas discuss the likelihood that things change this time around.
