Clyde to Husted: Put them back on the rolls.

State Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) today called on Secretary of State Jon Husted to restore illegally purged Ohio voters to the rolls and count the vote of any voter who should never have been purged in the first place. Yesterday, Husted ended negotiations with voting rights advocates and filed a motion in federal district court seeking to keep purged voters off the rolls and to continue to throw out the ballots of the wrongly purged.

“Over the past five years, under Husted, Ohio has led the nation in purging voters from the rolls. That's not on accident. That's on purpose. And the court caught him. And like so many other GOP officials across the country who want to tip elections in their favor, Husted is still refusing to make things right even after he was caught red-handed,” said Rep. Clyde.

“One month ago today, the federal court found Husted guilty of illegal purging, yet he still has not restored these voters to the rolls. And, worse, he is trying to order the county boards of elections to keep them off the rolls and throw out their ballots even if they were wrongly purged. This is shameless behavior that endangers our democratic process,” said Rep. Clyde.

On September 14, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Husted acted illegally when he purged more than 1.2 million voters from the voting rolls. The remedy phase is underway in federal district court. The motion filed yesterday by Husted can be found here.