Secretary of State launches another first to clean up Ohio's voter rolls
Using data obtained from the U.S. Postal Service National Change of Address (NCOA) Registry, this week Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted will be mailing more than 70,000 Ohioans who have moved out of state to encourage them to cancel their Ohio voter registrations if they are no longer eligible.
This step will help ensure those who are no longer residents can be removed from Ohio’s voter rolls prior to Election Day.
This marks the first time a Secretary of State has attempted to contact former Ohio voters.
“Accurate voter rolls are critical to running a smooth election and are the first line of defense against fraud,” Secretary Husted said. “Together, with Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections, we have done more over the last year and a half to improve the integrity of the Statewide Voter Registration Database than has been done since it was first created in 2004. That’s something in which Ohio voters can be confident.”
NCOA data also indicated that more than 300,000 Ohio voters have moved within the state. These voters will soon receive a postcard from Secretary Husted urging them to update their voting addresses before the October 9, 2012 voter registration deadline.
They can simply log on to Secretary Husted’s new Online Change of Address system housed at www.MyOhioVote.com.
In fact, had the Online Change of Address system been in place in 2008, an estimated 130,000 voters who cast provisional ballots could have changed their address online and voted a regular ballot.
It is important to note, pursuant to the list maintenance rules of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, these mailings do not impact the status of these voters; rather they simply urge voters to take proactive steps to update their information.
“If the people we reach do what we're asking it will dramatically reduce the number of provisional ballots and clean up the voter rolls,” Secretary Husted said.