Samuel Spital is the director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc. Leah Aden is senior counsel. The views expressed here are solely those of the authors.

(CNN) Suppose that in the last two years, you didn't show up to vote. Perhaps you couldn't make it to the polls, despite your best efforts, because it conflicted with your unpredictable work or child care schedule. Or perhaps you decided to abstain from voting in protest because you weren't pleased with any of the candidates. Or maybe you just forgot.

Samuel Spital

Leah Aden

If you live in Ohio, your failure to vote -- for whatever reason -- for two years would have triggered a process that could have resulted in your being purged from the state's voter rolls. Ohio's process for purging voters who vote infrequently is precisely the kind of barrier to voting that violates federal law.

Larry Harmon, an Ohio resident and plaintiff in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, expressed similar reasons for not voting. "Sometimes, I wasn't up on the politics," Harmon told an Ohio public radio station. "Other times I didn't like either of the candidates." His case is now before the US Supreme Court

On Wednesday, the Court will hear oral arguments in his case, which challenges Ohio's practice of "purging" people from its voter rolls for inactivity. Everyone who cares about the right to vote should pay close attention to how the justices approach this case. In keeping with federal protections, the Supreme Court should send a strong message that states should not purge eligible residents and voters from their rolls. Voting is a fundamental right and should not be a "use it or lose it" proposition.

Here's how it currently works. As part of their process for maintaining voter rolls, county election officials in Ohio mail notices to registered voters who have not voted for two years. If a voter does not respond to that single mailing -- perhaps because she did not see it in a pile of junk mail or understand its significance -- and does not vote for the next four years, the voter is automatically removed from the state's voter rolls.