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A federal court ruling mandated Ohio election officials to allow voters improperly purged since 2011 to vote and count their ballots if they still reside in the same county where they were registered. (Lisa DeJong, Plain Dealer file photo)

(Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer, File, 2008)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio voters who were improperly removed from the rolls after not casting a ballot for several years will be allowed to vote in the November general election.

A federal appellate court ruled last month that Ohio's practice of occasionally canceling voter registrations after six years of inactivity was illegal. A U.S. District Court decision issued Wednesday night mandates that voters purged since Jan. 1, 2011 be allowed to cast provisional ballots.

Ballots will count if the voter lives in the same county as they were registered in.

Secretary of State Jon Husted had asked the court to allow provisional voting for voters pulled from the rolls in 2015. Voter rights advocates who had filed the lawsuit asked for ballots to be counted for voters removed in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

Husted said Wednesday that his office will fully comply with the judge's order and continue focusing on administering a smooth election.

"Our main concern was to protect the integrity of the election by not having to reinstate deceased voters, those who moved out of state, or are otherwise ineligible," Husted said in a statement.

The ACLU of Ohio, which filed the suit on behalf of the Philip A. Randolph Institute and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, was pleased with the court's resolution.

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Our biggest concern was to make sure that voters who were illegally purged from the voter rolls will be able to cast their ballots in November and we believe this ruling largely resolves that," Mike Brickner, senior policy director for the ACLU of Ohio. "People who were purged are trying to vote right now and trying to get an absentee ballot."

At least 846,391 Ohio voter registrations were canceled between 2010 and 2014, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. But it's possible the number is much greater because Ohio's 88 counties did not uniformly remove voters or report that action.

Why were voters removed from the rolls?

The federal "Motor Voter" law prohibits states from removing voters for failing to vote. But it also allows states to establish a supplemental process for removing voters who have moved without updating their addresses.

In Ohio, the secretary of state's office sent a notice to registered voters who hadn't vote in elections for a period of time, generally two years, or changed their address through the U.S. Postal Service asking them to confirm their registration.

If the voter did not respond to the notice or update voter registration information or did not vote or sign a petition within four years, the registration can be canceled.

Husted said the practice dates back more than two decades, under Republican and Democrat secretaries of state.

How does the ruling affect voters?

Voters not found in the poll books will be allowed to vote provisionally, and the voter information will be checked against past voting lists and databases after Election Day. If the voter was not deceased or incarcerated and still lives in the county where most recently registered, the voter is assumed to have been purged for inactivity and the ballot will be counted.

The ruling comes one week into Ohio's early voting period. Husted on Friday directed boards of election not to reject absentee ballot requests because someone wasn't registered to vote as they awaited further guidance from the court.

Under Wednesday's resolution, purged voters will not be able to vote absentee by mail and will be informed they may cast a provisional ballot in-person during early voting or on Election Day. The resolution also calls for extra provisional ballots at polling places on hand on Election Day.

Wednesday's ruling settled the last of four lawsuits challenging Ohio's election procedures ahead of the November election. The ruling only applies to November's election.

Mobile readers, click here to read the ruling.