OHIO, USA — On the latest edition of "A Turning Point," we are exploring "The Sum of Us" by author Heather McGhee. The book examines the cost of racism on everyone.
McGhee has a strong connection to voter advocacy here in Ohio. As the head of the liberal think tank Demos, she once led the fight against the state's efforts to invalidate voter registration for those who did not regularly cast ballots. That purge was done under Ohio's then-Secretary of State Jon Husted and those before him (from both parties) and affected tens of thousands of voters, many of them in Ohio's urban counties.
Husted, now the state's lieutenant governor, claimed removing dead people and inactive voters improved the integrity and efficiency of elections. McGhee's non-profit and other groups sued, arguing low-income voters and voters of color were most affected.
Central to the case was Larry Harmon, a white Navy veteran from Portage County whose registration was canceled because he had not voted in six years. At issue was the state's method of notifying inactive voters of the purge, which required them to respond to a postcard, start voting again, or be dropped.
The case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled Ohio's purge process, when applied uniformly, didn't violate the Voting Rights Act. Activists said the case drew much-needed attention nonetheless.
"The supplemental process, also known as the purge, is still very real and a present danger," Nazek Hapasha, the Policy Affairs Manager for the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said.
In the last big election, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose released the names of voters on the purge list, allowing voter groups to scrutinize it.
“In 2019, there [were] over 400,000 people on the voter rolls that were to be purged, and it was folks who were active voters," Kayla Griffin, Ohio State Director for All Voting is Local," noted.
Voter groups pointed out mistakes for elections officials, which kept thousands of active voters rightfully on the rolls.
"This should have been a red flag to the legislature that this process is wrong," Hapasha told us.
Voter groups say that collaboration made a big difference, but their work is under attack. This past summer, Ohio's republican-led legislature passed a provision in the budget bill that prohibits elections officials from "collaborating" with outside groups.
“When we see even the impact that voter rights groups and advocates did with the purge," Griffin said. "This is an attack on our election system and it criminalizes the act of collaboration for elections officials, which very scary."
Provisions viewed as restricting voting advocacy and easier ballot access have been fueled by unfounded claims pushed by former President Donald Trump and others that the 2020 election was rigged. McGhee said the country has a long history of voter suppression activities meant to preserve power, but at a cost to all.
"I figured out through my journey was that the economic costs of a racially unequal system of racism and our politics and our policy making are so hidden and yet so huge," McGhee said in an interview with 3News. "Ultimately, it has a cost for us. All white people, too."
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