Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day, and Ohio organizations are redoubling their efforts to get residents ready for Election Day.
Ohio's deadline to register to vote is October 5, and early in-person voting begins the next day. With those dates coming soon, Voter Registration Day is typically a pretty big deal for civic groups like the League of Women Voters.
“It’s a national celebration of voting, reminding voters across the country to register to vote or to update their registration if they’ve moved or changed their name,” director Jen Miller explains.
Miller says her organization usually travels the state to register people at places like food banks and college campuses. But this year, much of the effort is online due to COVID-19.
“We want everyone to check their registration. There’s a chance that if they’re an infrequent voter that they’ve been removed from the rolls,” Miller says. “Sometimes there can be mistakes in someone’s registration if they just registered.”
Voters can register to vote, and check if their information is accurate, at VoteOhio.gov.
“We do have high provisional ballot counts in Ohio, where individuals may have moved and forgot to re-register or they’ve been removed from the rolls,” Miller notes.
Common Cause Ohio is a nonpartisan advocacy organization that aims to bolster public participation in democracy. Director Catherine Turcer says groups like hers need to be cognizant that voter registration so far this year has not taken place like usual.
“One of the things that we’ve worried about is the normal voter registration that happens at places like parades or local libraries just aren’t happening during this COVID-19," she says.
As a solution, Common Cause Ohio is giving out yard signs with instructions to register to vote.
“We have been providing yard signs with QR codes so that people can be directly linked to VoteOhio.gov,” Turcer says.
