INTERVIEW — HANS VON SPAKOVSKY
— former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department
— former commissioner for the Federal Election Commission from 2006 to 2007
— and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation
SCOTUS / OHIO RULING
>> Supreme Court Gives States the Green Light to Clean Up Voter Rolls
Hans von Spakovsky // Can a state take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of its voter rolls by removing people who have left the jurisdiction? On Monday, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court answered “yes,” affirming an Ohio law allowing for the removal of voters who have left the state.
> U.S. top court backs Ohio voter purge; Democrats blast ruling. WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday revived Ohio’s contentious policy of purging infrequent voters from registration rolls in a ruling powered by the five conservative justices and denounced by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor as an endorsement of the disenfranchisement of minority and low-income Americans. In a 5-4 decision in the closely watched voting-rights case, the high court overturned a lower court’s ruling that Ohio’s policy violated a 1993 federal law enacted to make it easier to register to vote. All four liberal justices dissented, and top Democrats said the decision will boost what they called Republican voter-suppression efforts. But other states may now follow Ohio’s lead.
