Ohio Secretary of State Renigs on Deal to Notify Ex-Cons of their Right to Vote

A national coalition of voting rights advocates is calling on public officials to denounce new attempts to suppress the vote in Ohio and across the country. The national Right to Vote Campaign calls on Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to allow the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) to provide written notification to people on parole that they are eligible to vote under Ohio law. Blackwell's inaction is preventing the voting rights notification of as many as 100,000 potential voters who may have been misinformed of their rights by local Ohio election boards. Ohio law gives people with felony convictions the right to vote immediately upon release from incarceration, regardless of whether they are on parole, probation, or under community supervision. In August, PRAC filed suit  against Blackwell and the 21 county boards of elections, including Summit, found to have disseminated false information to eligible voters. In order to facilitate settlement of the lawsuit, ODRC voluntarily agreed to immediately begin to notify people of their right to vote as they report to their parole officers. "Based on that promise, we agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. Now, Secretary Blackwell's lawyer, who has taken over the representation of ODRC, is denying that the case was ever settled," said PRAC's David Singleton[more ]