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.
Even though California's recreational Marijuana law went into effect today, much of the country still does not have medical or recreational legalization. On top of that, the Federal government's laws are vastly different from states that have legalized. Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and he joins Cheddar to give his take on how legalization will progress from here.
Even with California, the sixth biggest economy in the world, legalizing pot, incongruities in state and federal law hinder growth in the marijuana market. That's according to Paul Armentano, Deputy Director at NORML.
President Trump has returned from his holiday in Florida and is officially back to work. Congress is back in session tomorrow and there is a lot to get done. Lawmakers will be voting on many items like immigration, disaster relief, and more. Will the two sides of the aisle be able to work together, or will divisions hinder Washington?
The governor says Colorado learned that properly packaging edibles helps keep pot away from children.
Congress is heading back to work with a packed agenda ahead of the looming government shutdown. CRTV's Nate Madden and The Democratic Coalition's Jarad Geldner join Cheddar's roundtable to discuss what awaits lawmakers when they get back from their holiday break.
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President Donald Trump gave an impromptu with the New York Times Washington Correspondent Michael Schmidt at his Mar-A-Lago property Thursday. Alexander Heffner, Host of PBS' "The Open Mind," explains what this interview says about the relationship between Trump and the media.
President Trump left most of America wondering what he'll say next after an impromptu interview with the New York Times. Philip Wegmann, Commentary Writer for the Washington Examiner joins Cheddar to give his thoughts on the President's statement regarding the Russia probe.
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