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Supreme Court Nixes GOP Effort to Purge Ohio Voters

Ohio Democrats declared victory on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a Republican-led effort in the Buckeye State that would have required 200,000 voters to cast provisional ballots on Election Day.

“Our nation’s highest court has protected the voting rights of all Ohioans, allowing our bipartisan elections officials to continue preparing for a successful November election,” said Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat. “Now that the nation’s highest court has ruled in favor of Ohio voters, I encourage everyone to support the bipartisan system of elections administration in our state.”

“We will continue to work with our local election officials to successfully prepare for an unprecedented turnout and a fair election process,” she added.

Brunner recently appealed a lower court’s decision that would have required voters in Ohio to vote provisionally in the upcoming election if their registrations were flagged because of misspellings, incorrect addresses or other inconsistencies.

The Ohio Republican Party conceded defeat on Friday, saying that the court battle was won on a “technicality, not on the merits of the case.”

But state GOP Chairman Bob Bennett said the case is far from settled.

“The justices did not disagree with our argument that Jennifer Brunner has failed to comply with federal election law,” Bennett said in a statement. “They merely said we don’t have a right to bring a private challenge against her under this particular provision” of election law.

“Secretary Brunner has fought every effort to validate hundreds of thousands of questionable registrations,” he added. “As far as I’m concerned, Secretary Brunner is actively working to conceal fraudulent activity in this election.”

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