"Once again, Ohio officials are breaking the laws they are sworn to uphold, and thousands of Ohioans have lost their right to register to vote as a result. The state’s disregard for the voting rights of low-income Ohioans is appalling," said Lisa Danetz of the National Voting Rights Institute, another organization representing plaintiffs.

In addition to the first-hand experience of Ms. Harkless and Ms. Mardis, neither of whom was ever informed of her right to register at DJFS offices, the lawsuit cites extensive evidence of Ohio’s noncompliance with the NVRA:

• A report provided to the Secretary of State in February 2006 documented an investigation of six counties, showing lack of compliance in all six. Offices of the Department of Jobs and Family Services in five of the six counties did not have any voter registration forms. The sole office that had the forms had relegated them to an unused corner of the office, without any signs advising public assistance applicants of the right to register to vote, and the clerk did not even know the forms were there, much less provide the requisite assistance in completing them.
• Interviews that Ohio ACORN conducted outside public assistance agencies in Ohio’s three largest counties revealed that virtually no individuals were offered the opportunity to register.
• Ohio’s own statistics for the period 2002-2004 indicate that all of Ohio’s DJFS offices collectively registered less than one-half of one percent of the number of persons applying for or seeking recertification of Food Stamps benefits. Four of the most populous counties in the state - Franklin, Hamilton, Summit and Montgomery - registered fewer persons at their DJFS offices than either Athens or Marion, two small counties with only a fraction of the population of the four larger counties. DJFS office in ten counties did not register a single person from 2002-2004, and another 17 counties registered fewer than ten persons.

Mary Keith, chairwoman of Ohio ACORN, observed "Low-income people in Ohio need a voice in government, and they shouldn’t have to jump through additional hoops simply to secure their right to register to vote. It is a shame that Mr. Blackwell has spent more time suppressing voter registration with unconstitutional regulations than fulfilling his obligation to help people participate in the democratic process."

The current lawsuit in Ohio developed out of the work of the NVRA Implementation Project, an effort by the non-profit organizations Demos, ACORN and Project Vote to ascertain and enhance states’ compliance with the NVRA public assistance requirements, and out of efforts to improve implementation of that provision of the law with the legal expertise and resources of the Lawyers’ Committee and National Voting Rights Institute. In several states, assistance provided by the Project has led to huge increases in the number of low-income residents offered the opportunity to register to vote.