Supreme Court allows Ohio voter purge

The Supreme Court in Washington is seen at sunset.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is allowing Ohio to clean up its voting rolls by targeting people who haven’t cast ballots in a while.

The justices are rejecting, by a 5-4 vote Monday, arguments that the practice violates a federal law intended to increase the ranks of registered voters. A handful of other states also use voters’ inactivity to trigger a process that could lead to their removal from the voting rolls.

Justice Samuel Alito says that Ohio is complying with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. He is joined by his four conservative colleagues.