Three new groups are questioning Ohio’s voter purge — leaving open the possibility of another lawsuit — as the state prepares to cancel the registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters Friday.

The Fair Elections Center, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and Ohio Nuns on the Bus sent a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Frank LaRose. In it, they asked him to, among other things, explain the vendor error that resulted in active voters being added to the purge list; commit to reviewing past purges; and require county boards of elections to use petition signatures as voter activity.

“Though we hope this can be avoided, we are prepared to pursue litigation to halt this list maintenance process and/or to compel the remedial actions described above,” the groups wrote in the letter.

Get the news delivered to your inbox: Sign up for our morning, afternoon and evening newsletters

A response was requested by 6 p.m. Wednesday. State officials sent a written response late Wednesday.

In the letter, Assistant Attorney General Ann Yackshaw writes that the secretary of state's office will direct county boards of elections to review their lists of registrations set to be purged to check that they only will cancel registrations that, since 2015, did not respond to a confirmation notice; update their registrations; vote or "engage in voter activity"; show up in an automatic confirmation of address; or respond to last-chance notices mailed in July.

LaRose's office also will direct county boards of elections that they cannot cancel registrations that appear as "active" in the statewide database of voters.

"Due to the complexities of the issues raised in your letter and your request to receive a response in less than twenty-eight hours, the secretary cannot commit to any steps beyond those in this letter," Yackshaw wrote.

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled against the Ohio Democratic Party’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the purge after LaRose’s office, voting rights groups and The Dispatch found thousands of active voters on the list set to be purged.

In August, The Dispatch found that 1,641 voters who had cast ballots since 2015 were among the 235,610 to whom county boards of elections sent so-called "last chance" notices warning them that their registrations would be canceled Friday.

LaRose’s office attributed that mistake to a vendor error in a system used by 15 of Ohio’s 88 counties. The secretary of state's office has said it is investigating how the error occurred, but it has not disclosed its findings after multiple meetings with the vendor. LaRose's office also met with voting advocates Tuesday, but would not discuss the topic of that gathering.

The three organizations' letter asks LaRose to “explain whether the issues resulting from use of the DIMS system was the result of user error or flaws intrinsic to the system.”

They also want LaRose to confirm that 794 voters who cast ballots in 2016 and 2018 will not be purged. The Dispatch found 110 people who voted in the 2018 midterm election who were set to be wiped from the list of eligible voters.

And, in light of errors discovered this summer, the three groups want LaRose to review past purges for similar problems. That includes the cancellation of about 265,000 voter registrations in January under a directive signed by former Secretary of State Jon Husted, now the lieutenant governor.

Ohio updates its voter rolls in two separate but simultaneous processes. One compares registrations to a national database compiled by the U.S. Postal Service to determine whether voters have moved and are eligible for removal.

The “supplemental process” cancels the registration of voters who have not cast ballots for six years. After two years of inactivity, those voters are sent a “confirmation notice” telling them they have four years to take action — by voting, signing an election petition, updating voter registration, or returning the notice to the county elections board — before their registration is purged.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that Ohio’s supplemental process is legal.

Errors in the system have surfaced after LaRose directed county boards of elections to submit for the first time the list of voters whose registrations would be canceled in the upcoming purge. That list was distributed to community groups, political parties and religious leaders to contact registrants and encourage them to take action to avoid being purged.

Almost immediately after the list was released, LaRose’s office discovered discrepancies, including about 1,100 last-chance notices that mistakenly were sent to registered voters who had signed election petitions in Franklin County.

The groups who wrote to LaRose on Tuesday want his office to create a database of petition signers and require county boards of elections to use petition signatures as voter activity that can prevent them from being purged.

“We appreciate the transparency with which the secretary of state has conducted the process. It could have been even more transparent, but it’s been pretty transparent,” said Jon Sherman, senior counsel for the Fair Elections Center in Washington. “The letter is intended to initiate a conversation with their office and hopefully resolve things out of court.”

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan