Do You Have To Be A Registered Voter In Ohio For Jury Duty Call?

Columbus City Council staff member Stanley Gates tries to get the attention of drivers during a voter registration drive at Unity Baptist Church of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio on October 3, 2020.

More than than 42,000 new voters registered in Franklin County alee of this year's presidential election.

They did more than assist decide the winner of Ohio's electoral votes.

They made themselves eligible for jury duty.

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Franklin County Common Pleas Court typically updates its listing of residents who are eligible to be summoned for jury service in the coming year during Thanksgiving week when there is little or no court activity. And the aforementioned was true this yr.

Under Ohio law, jury commissions in the state'south 88 counties can draw from the list of registered voters or a combined list of registered voters and licensed drivers who reside in the county. Franklin County'southward Municipal and Common Pleas courts rely solely on registered voters.

Thanks to those who newly registered and then they could vote in the 2020 presidential election, the listing of eligible jurors in Franklin County for 2021, finalized concluding week, has grown to 735,680 names.

A larger pool of potential jurors won't alter the way Mutual Pleas Court handles the process of randomly drawing names by computer on a weekly footing, said Susan Bedsole, deputy court managing director.

"It just means people accept less of a chance of being called," she said.

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The courtroom received an updated listing of registered voters from the county board of elections. New voters were added to the database of eligible jurors for 2021, while those no longer registered to vote were dropped.

The calculator programme also flagged those who have served on a Common Pleas jury in the by two years, excusing them from being called again until their two years are up.

For now, all the same, no jurors are beingness chosen by the Mutual Pleas Courtroom. A surge in COVID-19 cases has prompted the court'southward judges to append all jury trials until at least Feb. 1.

In county Municipal Court, jurors are existence summoned, only are "on call" to come up in when absolutely needed rather than reporting to the courthouse because and then few jury trials are being conducted during the pandemic.

Whenever Common Pleas jury trials resume next twelvemonth, the jury commission will utilize its new database of eligible jurors to randomly draw about 300 names per week to receive summonses. Well-nigh 120 of those individuals typically study, Administrative Gauge Stephen L. McIntosh said.

Despite the fact that more than than one-half those calls are no-shows, those who report provide plenty potential jurors to handle the court's needs, he said.

What can never be adamant in whatever given year is how many people decided non to register to vote because doing and so makes them eligible to be called for jury duty.

"Anecdotally, information technology is a real, legitimate thing we hear all over the land," said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials.

The use of registered voters to call jurors has sometimes been an obstruction for League of Women Voters of Ohio volunteers as they seek to recruit new voters.

"It's not uncommon for the states to hear concerns nearly non wanting to serve jury duty every bit a reason why people don't want to annals," said Jen Miller, the system's executive director.

"It'due south one of the reasons why we encourage counties to pool from both registered voters and licensed drivers," she said. "That'southward how y'all notice the most various Ohioans."

jfutty@dispatch.com

@johnfutty