According to Innovation Ohio President and CEO Desiree Tims, people at risk of falling off the voter rolls tend to belong to certain demographics. She believes engaging with inactive voters in the state’s urban areas is essential to recovering these missing voters.
“For us, the concern is that these voters are in danger of being purged – 64% of these voters, according to our report, are under the age of 50, and one in five are Black,” she said.
A recent Innovation Ohio report found more than 700,000 inactive voters in the state — individuals who are registered to vote, but didn’t cast a ballot in any of the last three federal elections.
Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties contain around 40% of all registered voters in the state. Tims added these major urban counties saw a significant drop in voter turnout from 2018 to 2022, and said increasing awareness about the impact of not participating in elections is critical, as voters may not understand why they’ve been removed from the voter rolls.
“Oftentimes, people are purged and they don’t realize it until they show up on Election Day, and then they aren’t able to participate,” she continued.
Ohio is home to about 2 million eligible but unregistered voters who live primarily in densely populated urban counties. The report shows around 82% of these voters are white, 12% are Black, and most are 49 years old or older.
This article appears in Nov 8-21, 2023.