Lorain County Board of Elections purges more than 2,000 inactive voters

SHEFFIELD TWP. — More than 2,000 Lorain County voters were removed from the county's Board of Elections' rolls during a routine purge earlier this month. The process has been in the works since an initial list of voters who could be purged was released in August, Board of Elections director Paul Adams said. "There were a number of administrative things that needed to be done kind of behind the scenes to make sure that the purge list was proper and that both here locally as well as at the state (level) that it was confirmed that those individuals had not had any voter activity and were properly on the purge list," Adams said. According to the list provided by the county Board of Elections, 2,039 Lorain County residents were de-registered earlier this month — stretching from every city and township in the county. Since the list was released in the fall, last-chance notices were sent out ahead of the General Election in November. Some chose to vote in that election, Adams said, removing them from the de-registration list. "I think it was a good move on the Secretary of State's part because I think there are some people that unfortunately think we only vote every four years and they might think 'Oh, I'm going to miss this one, but I'll get the next one in four years.' Well, no, there's typically two elections per year. So I think that that notice was important to send out to voters. I don't know the exact numbers but I'm sure that reduced the number of people that would have otherwise been purged in Lorain County and Ohio.'' Those from that list who did not vote in November, and had no other activity, were removed Jan. 4. Some had no voter activity in more than 15 years. The most recent any individual on the list would have voted is the 2016 primary, Adams said, then missed every election thereafter, eliminating their party affiliation. "In Ohio, the way you determine party affiliation is by which party ballot you voted within the last two years," Adams said. "So since none of these people have even voted in the last four, in many cases even more than that — none of them have party affiliation because whatever they did have no longer is tracked because they don't have any activity within the last two years." Statewide, more than 97,000 Ohioans were purged from voter registration rolls. All 88 counties in Ohio went through the same process to purge abandoned voter registrations, Adams said. Voter rolls are purged regularly in Ohio, at the directive of the Secretary of State. Those who allow their registration to lapse can re-register at any time. View the list released Jan. 4 below: Contact Carissa Woytach at 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.