Last Call For Voter Suppression, Ohio Style

Republicans will do anything to win in 2016, and in all-important swing state Ohio, that means throwing tens of thousands of black voters off the rolls for the "crime" of not voting since 2008.

As the Nov. 8 elections loom, officials in Ohio have removed tens of thousands of voters from registration lists because they have not cast a ballot since 2008. 

All U.S. states periodically cleanse their voter rolls, but only a handful remove voters simply because they don’t vote on a regular basis. And nowhere could the practice have a greater potential impact in the state-by-state battle for the White House than Ohio, a swing state that has backed the winner in every presidential election since 1960.

Voters of all stripes in Ohio are affected, but the policy appears to be helping Republicans in the state's largest metropolitan areas, according to a Reuters survey of voter lists. In the state’s three largest counties that include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters have been struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods.

If Ohio is a swing state, then the state pivots on Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and taking a closer look at who Ohio GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted has thrown off the voter rolls makes this entire move much more heinous:

 

In other words, anyone who last voted in 2008 (like, say, tens of thousands of newly registered black voters) and who didn't vote in 2012, now cannot vote in 2016.

If you wonder how Trump is going to keep Ohio close?  You just found it.

I'm hoping Ohio Democrats are moving to get folks registered to vote again, because a whole lot of people lost their right to vote thanks to Ohio Republicans.