Richardson: Oregon aims to keep inactive voters on rolls

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson reacted to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on removing voters from the rolls by noting that Oregon has doubled the number of years it takes for such a step to be taken.

In the case Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s method of removing voters from voter rolls for not participating in some elections.

“Despite today’s ruling by the US Supreme Court, Oregon remains a national leader in protecting voting rights,” Richardson said in a news release. “In Oregon, we believe that a registered voter should not lose their voting rights solely because they haven’t participated recently.”

Early last year, Richardson extended the inactive voter deadline in Oregon from five years to 10 years to protect the voting rights of almost 60,000 Oregonians.

“I’m proud that our rule was approvingly cited during this US Supreme Court case as a national model,” Richardson said.

Prior secretaries of state chose to interpret ORS 247.013(6)(a) and (7) as requiring voters to be moved to “inactive” status after only five years of voting inactivity.

Since the official policy of the state of Oregon is to maximize voting rights, Richardson said he chose to honor that legacy by doubling the time before voters are moved to inactive status.

Additionally, Richardson said he has submitted legislation to Legislative Counsel for the 2019 session to protect voters from ever being moved to inactive status for nonparticipation.