On Monday, June 11, 2018, SCOTUS decided 5-4 that Ohio culling names of inactive voters — that is, eligible, registered voters who haven't voted in the past three federal elections and have failed to respond to state election officials — from the state's voting rolls is perfectly legal. I mean, people do move and die, right? Wouldn't it make sense for a state to want to update it's list of registered voters?

Here's the thing — voting is a personal choice. People have the right to choose not to vote, even if they're registered. No one is obligated to vote in every single election. And according to the National Voter Registration Act, states cannot remove voters from their voting rolls for failing to vote.

“But Ohio sent out notices to these people it kicked off, and they didn't get a response," I hear you say. There may be several reasons why these inactive voters never responded. Some may have moved, some may have never actually received the notice in the first place, others may have forgotten to respond, and many may have even written it off as junk mail. That doesn't mean that suddenly all the people who didn't respond are ineligible to vote in Ohio.

While yes, states do need to be able to keep an accurate record of eligible, registered voters. I mean, after seven years, I don't want my dad voting in any election. But one notice and if you don't respond, you can't vote anymore? Considering that voting is one of our most basic and cherished rights here in the United States, that seems like it's a punishment for registered voters who refuse to vote.

There are several concerns with the Supreme Court siding with Ohio in this case, but the main one is that Ohio's voter purging law is the most aggressive in the country, and there are fears that now SCOTUS has sided with the Buckeye State, other states will follow. This means that states could potentially make it harder for the poor, the homeless, and minorities — all people very much eligible to vote — to vote. And when you start making it more difficult for people to cast their vote, you have some serious problems.

I mean, if someone is homeless, they're not going to respond to a notice sent to them in the mail. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be able to vote because they're still American citizens who have a right to decide who they want representing them in government.

And it's especially more critical that every eligible person is allowed to vote whenever they want if they live in states that vote directly on issues that effect state law. To make voting more difficult for anyone would go against everything a democracy stands for.

Democracy only works when everyone has a the capability to vote whether they want to or not. Our free and fair elections which every eligible citizen is allowed to vote in is what sets the US apart from places like North Korea and Cuba. And to penalize registered voters for not voting by removing them from the roll after failing to respond from one measly notice is not something that any state should be doing.

And by siding with Ohio in this case, SCOTUS just opened the door to states infringing upon voter rights. Because if either party has a way to suppress their opponent's voters, you can bet that they'll exploit that opportunity as much as humanly possible (see the whole issue with gerrymandering to see exactly what I mean).

Just imagine walking into your polling place to vote as a law-abiding American citizen just performing your civic duty and being turned away because you haven't voted in six years for whatever reason. Not because all of a sudden you're no longer eligible to vote (i.e. becoming a convicted felon), but because you didn't fill out a card you probably threw in the trash that the state mailed you five years before. States do need a way to update their voter records, but the least they could do is send more than one notice before removing a name from the voter registration. I mean, companies that send spam mail send more than one letter before getting the message that you're not interested (and even then, they still don't get the message, *cough* Dish Network *cough*).