LaRose encourages inactive voters to confirm voter registration ahead of required removals
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that his office has published a list of 352,389 inactive voter registrations eligible for removal from the Statewide Voter Registration Database. This legally required process helps assure accurate, up-to-date voter rolls across the state. The program, which complies with both federal and state requirements, aims to remove abandoned registrations while protecting the rights of active voters.
“Ohio leads the nation in ensuring an accurate voter registration list,” said Secretary LaRose. “This careful and deliberate process makes sure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot while removing outdated registrations that could compromise election integrity. Ohioans deserve transparency and accuracy in this process, and through the hard work of our county boards of elections, that’s exactly what we deliver.”
During his administration, Secretary LaRose has taken unprecedented steps to provide greater transparency to the voter registration list maintenance process. He became the first chief election officer in the nation to publish inactive registrations eligible for removal from the statewide database through a publicly available Registration Readiness List.
What voters need to know:
• No inactive voter registrations will be canceled before the May 2025 Primary Election.
• All potentially affected voters were sent a “Registration Readiness Notice.”
• Voters can easily maintain their registration by voting, updating or confirming their information, or responding to mailed notices.
• Voters and the public can search the Registration Readiness List by visiting RegistrationReadiness.OhioSOS.gov.
• The final cancellation of abandoned registrations will occur on Sept. 23, 2025 (Sept. 29, 2025 for Lucas County registrations).
The maintenance program identifies potentially outdated registrations through two main processes: the National Change of Address (NCOA) database, which identifies voters who have shown no voting activity for a period of four years, and the Supplemental Process, which identifies voters who have shown no voting activity for a period of six years. The directive also required each county board to identify and remove past-due cancelations.
The NCOA process compares the voter rolls of the boards of elections with the United States Postal Service database to identify those who have moved and failed to update their registration.
The process complies with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and Ohio’s voter list maintenance process, which has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Boards of elections send notices to impacted registrants, providing ample opportunity to confirm or update their registration status.
If an inactive registration has been removed, the registrant may re-register at any time, as long as they’re an eligible elector in Ohio. Voters can check their registration status or register to vote quickly and conveniently at VoteOhio.gov.
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