Ohio Unity

Because over 2 million Ohio voters have been purged from the state’s voter file since 2011 -- more than in any other state -- it is extremely important that all civic organizers, voting rights advocates, Ohio election administrators, and volunteers do all they can to verify voters’ registration statuses before the October 11, 2016 deadline to register to vote. Ohio residents who are removed from voting lists must re-register at least 30 days before an election.

Ohio Unity Coalition, statewide affiliate of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, is happy to provide a quick, interactive tool to expedite voter verifications of Ohio residents. Using data from the Ohio Secretary of State voter database, the Ohio Unity Voter Verification App gives organizers and volunteers the ability to easily verify voter statuses from their mobile devices using just zip code, first and last name. To optimize your outreach to Ohio voters, the app encourages best practices in voter verification and re-registration, first advising Ohio Voter Verifiers to use printed Ohio Voter Registration forms in tandem with the app, providing a printer-ready link to the form for Verifiers who need to print some, and, for those without registration forms or printer access, enabling a simple 4-step process within the app for those found to be unregistered to submit the necessary information. Because Ohio does not allow for online voter registration (yet), the app will automatically email a link to download an autofilled-in PDF of their Ohio Voter Registration form to anyone who submits their voter registration information through the user interface. The email provides the necessary instructions to a registering voter so they can know to print, sign and date, and mail in the form to their county’s board of elections office (address provided) within 10 days of signing.

We hope you will use this tool widely to ensure that as few Ohioans as possible are locked out of the election process this November 8. LET'S BE READY TO VOTE!