Ohio purged 26,000 voters days before abortion referendum deadline

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    But it’s unusual to remove voter registrations this close to an election given the risk of disenfranchising people who intend to vote but simply missed the memo that they had been flagged for removal. In fact, if this was a national election rather than a state-level contest, what LaRose’s office has done would have been illegal. The National Voter Registration Act prohibits elections offices from systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.

    Looks Ohio will have to pass ANOTHER state Constitutional amendment forcing politicians to follow a reasonable requirement of 90 days.

    • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Hopefully someday it will be a federal law. I think disenfranchised voters ought to be able to sue the governors and\or attorneys general who removed them from the rolls.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Section 1983 of the federal code already exists. We just need the entire law to be followed, so that the clearly illegal decision made by the 1982 SCOTUS (unknowingly, they actually called out the fact that the clause was removed without knowing, since the didn’t check the Congressional Record, because why would they?) at the end of Harlow V Fitzgerald can be reversed.

        In 1871 the reconstruction Congress passed section 1983 of the federal code. In 1874 a single unnamed person was tasked with the procedure of hand copying the Congressional Record into the Federal Register. They removed a 16 word clause illegally. That clause specifically said “lol get fucked, no immunity from prosecution for government officials can exist, especially ones that were passed at the state level.” (Of course it says this in Legalese so the words aren’t as inflammatory) We need to force the lower courts to shove as many QI cases, with this information, at the current SCOTUS as possible to get Harlow V Fitzgerald overturned.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/us/politics/qualified-immunity-supreme-court.html

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          Considering that civil asset forfeiture is blatantly contrary to the explicit word and spirit of the Fourth Amendment, and it’s been enabled by the current courts, I don’t have much faith in QI being struck down but, that would be wonderful.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        I think the federal government should throw those officials in jail without the voters having to file a lawsuit. They’re flagrantly violating the literal most important rule in any democratic society.