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.
Snap Inc. has a message for its employees: if you leak company information, you could go to jail. Amazon announces it will increase prices on monthly Prime memberships by 20%. Facebook recently announced it will change the News Feed to favor posts from friends and family over posts from publishers. And the clock is ticking for Congress to extend funding and avoid a government shutdown.
Arianna Huffington explains how it helps people combat their smartphone addiction. Amazon narrows the list of cities for HQ2. Facebook announces details of its community outreach program. Whatsapp announces it will allow business accounts. In a Cheddar scoop, Snapchat is laying off dozens of workers. The government shutdown looms. IBM, Atlassian, American Express release earnings.
Mozilla joining the fight to save net neutrality. The open source web browser filed a petition this week, challenging the Federal Communication Commission's vote to roll back Obama-era protections. Mozilla's Senior Policy Manager Heather West explains what the company is hoping to accomplish with this petition.
On VF Hive: We’re joined by the crew from Vanity Fair's Hive to discuss Bannon's Mueller investigation subpoena. On Between Bells: Winter Olympics diplomacy, and Ellen Pompeo's payday. With New York Magazine, Latina Magazine, and FHM.
The Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines to reverse Obama-era internet regulations, potentially changing the way Americans use the internet. Sarah Morris is the Director of Open Internet Policy at New America's Open Technology Institute, a group fighting the FCC ruling.
The Hive co-host Kristen Scholer discusses the five biggest news stories in politics and tech. From Steve Bannon cooperating with Robert Mueller, to Facebook's new algorithm, we have it all covered on The Hive.
The House is scheduled to vote on a short-term budget deal Thursday afternoon, but the latest count shows that House GOP leaders don't have enough votes. Reason Magazine Editor-at-Large Matt Welch explains why a government shutdown "may happen by accident."
The Times reported this week that the U.S. military was quietly preparing for the possibility of war with Pyongyang. Joel S. Wit, Senior Fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins and author of "Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis," joins The Hive to discuss what Americans need to worry about...and what they don't.
Apple is planning to invest big in the U.S. economy over the next five years. Amazon announces a list of 20 candidates for its HQ2. Carter Reum, entrepreneur and author of the new book "Shortcut Your Startup," joins us to share his tips on turning your idea into a successful business. Plus, we get the latest on the fight to preserve net neutrality.
Michael Harriot, columnist at The Root, discusses the future of DACA as funding for the government is set to run out soon.
