By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Taina Romstadt hasn’t given up her pursuit to purge people from Wood County voting rolls. After two unsuccessful attempts earlier this year, her efforts have mushroomed – with her latest challenge listing 16,924 voters – including some elected officials.
In her latest letter to the Board of Elections, Romstadt, of Lake Township, offers her help in ridding the voting rolls of ineligible voters.
“I appreciate the opportunity to assist the Wood County Board of Elections with their efforts to fulfill their duties of maintaining voter records free from errors and clearing ineligible records from voter rolls,” she wrote.
The Wood County Board of Elections will hold a meeting on Friday, Oct. 11, at 9 a.m., to discuss the latest voter challenges. The meeting will be held in the board’s conference room on the first floor of the county office building in Bowling Green.
Romstadt first approached the board of elections in June with a challenge to 103 names on the voter rolls. In August, she was back asking that 112 names be removed.
The board of elections declined to remove the names, and explained that all the names presented were already going through the voter purge process, which is spelled out by state statute.
The board also said there was no indication that any of the people she questioned have or attempted to vote in Wood County recently.
In her latest filing with the board of elections, Romstadt placed names of voters in several different categories for being purged from the rolls. She listed two people in the deceased category. She made home visits to some addresses, and found the registered voters to no longer be living there.
Other categories included people who had not voted in the last six years, some that may be duplicates, and some that may contain errors. Among Romstadt’s lists are some elected officials, including Wood County commissioners Ted Bowlus and Doris Herringshaw.
Wood County currently has 90,872 registered voters. Romstadt’s list of challenges covers 19% of those.
In July, Wood County’s roll of registered voters dropped by 4,919 names, using the federally mandated process to remove names of voters who either have moved out of a jurisdiction without notice or have not participated in any voter activity over a four-year period.
Local people removed from voter lists are those who have had no contact with the Wood County Board of Elections for the last two federal election cycles, which occur on even numbered years.
So for four years, the people being purged from the list have not initiated any voting activity, and have not changed their addresses with the board of elections. Voter-initiated activity includes voting, submitting a valid absentee ballot application, registering to vote, updating or confirming an address with a board of elections or the BMV, or signing a candidate or issue petition that is verified by a board of elections.
Those being dropped from the voter lists have also not answered requests to respond to confirmation cards from the county board of elections. And they have failed to respond to “last chance” mailings from the board.
Romstadt, however, maintained that the board has the authority to take more immediate action and not wait for the process which can take four years to play out. The board was shirking its responsibilities by not investigating her claims, she said.
Romstadt took up this mission after the 2020 Presidential election. “I became very concerned about election integrity,” she said.
Romstadt said she learned there were serious problems with voter rolls around the country including Ohio. “So I remained concerned.”
