# Here's how the Republicans stay in power

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-how-the-republicans-stay-in-power/815958>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [June 12, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-how-the-republicans-stay-in-power/815958 "2018-06-12T13:07:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-how-the-republicans-stay-in-power/815958/41 "2018-06-23T17:03:17Z")

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> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> Sorry, but here’s the deal: to be purged in Ohio, you had to accomplish the following:
> 
> 1. You fail to vote, or do anything else vote-related for two years.
> 
> 2. You fail to return a pre-addressed, stamped postcard verifying you continue to reside at the address.
> 
> 3. You fail to vote for four more years.
> 
> So that’s six full years you have to have been silent as a voter, AND you have to have failed to return the card.

But this basically boils down to

1. being the sort of person who only votes in presidential election years
2. skipping 1 election
3. not noticing a small postcard that comes among in a big pile of junkmail, or gets delivered to the wrong address.

Not that hard.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-how-the-republicans-stay-in-power/815958/42 "2018-06-23T17:17:46Z")

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> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> There’s theoretical value in keeping people who’ve moved from voting in multiple locations. But they’re only purging people who didn’t vote the last time or two - also theoretically.

Yes, and in fact I would think that the sort of person who would take the trouble to vote in multiple locations would probably the sort of person who votes very chance they get. So the people they are trying to catch are precisely the people that this law overlooks. It looks to me that this was designed specifically to target those people who don’t vote in off year elections, i.e. primarily Democrats.

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