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.
2017 saw multiple historic elections, including the election of Ravinder Bhalla, the first Sikh to be elected mayor in New Jersey. Bhalla will be inaugurated on January 1st and intends to hit the ground running.
Ravinder Bhalla, Mayor-Elect of Hoboken, says that he will do everything that he can to protect New Jersey residents from Capitol Hill.
Between Bells: Motor Trend's Car, Truck, and SUV of the year, the top entertainment stories of 2017, and gearing up for recreational cannabis legalization in 2018. We're joined by Cannabis Culture, Rare Media, PCMag, Hollywood Life and more.
Taking on the credibility of the FBI has become increasingly common in the Trump era, but one Congressman took it to a new level this week.
Prince Harry interviews Barack Obama, Kanye gives Kim top stocks for Christmas, and Americans are expended to send back around $90 billion worth of presents.
It's no surprise that the year "fake news" entered our vocabularies was a controversial one for media. NewsBusters' Curtis Houck joins Cheddar to break down the year's most polarizing press events.
Republicans are celebrating a big policy win on tax reform. They hope to use the momentum they've picked up to replicate their victory in the new year, but can President Trump squeak out another win as the GOP advantage in the Senate shrinks?
President Trump notched his first major policy win with tax reform last week. Can he use the momentum from that win to push his policies through in 2018, or will Democrats stand in his way?
President Donald Trump touting his tax bill over Twitter. Politifact Staff Writer Jon Greenberg fact-checks claims Trump made over the impact of tax reform.
Money shouldn't have any influence on politics. Represent.Us, the nation's largest grassroots anti-corruption campaign, is looking to make sure corruption is eradicated from America's political system. Josh Silver, Founder & Director of Represent.Us, joined us to share why he feels corruption is a major problem hurting real Americans every day.
