Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-980_f2q3.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

registrant is sent and fails to mail back a return card and 
then fails to vote for an additional four years. 

B 
  Respondents  argue  (and  the  Sixth  Circuit  held)  that, 
even  if  Ohio’s  process  complies  with  subsection  (d),  it 
nevertheless  violates  the  Failure-to-Vote  Clause—the 
clause  that  generally  prohibits  States  from  removing 
people  from  the  rolls  “by  reason  of  [a]  person’s  failure  to 
vote.”  §20507(b)(2); see also §21083(a)(4)(A).  Respondents 
point out that Ohio’s Supplemental Process uses a person’s 
failure to vote twice: once as the trigger for sending return 
cards  and  again  as  one  of  the  requirements  for  removal.  
Respondents conclude that this use of nonvoting is illegal. 
  We  reject  this  argument  because  the  Failure-to-Vote 
Clause,  both  as  originally  enacted  in  the  NVRA  and  as 
amended by HAVA, simply forbids the use of nonvoting as 
the sole criterion for removing a registrant, and Ohio does 
not  use  it  that  way.    Instead,  as  permitted  by  subsection 
(d),  Ohio  removes  registrants  only  if  they  have  failed  to 
vote and have failed to respond to a notice. 
  When  Congress  clarified  the  meaning  of  the  NVRA’s 
Failure-to-Vote  Clause  in  HAVA,  here  is  what  it  said: 
“[C]onsistent  with  the  [NVRA],  . . .  no  registrant  may  be 
to  vote.”  
removed  solely  by  reason  of  a 
§21083(a)(4)(A)  (emphasis  added).    The  meaning  of  these 
words  is  straightforward.    “Solely”  means  “alone.”    Web-
ster’s  Third  New  International  Dictionary  2168  (2002); 
American  Heritage  Dictionary  1654  (4th  ed.  2000).    And 
“by reason of ” is a “quite formal” way of saying “[b]ecause 
of.”    C.  Ammer,  American  Heritage  Dictionary  of  Idioms 
67  (2d  ed.  2013).    Thus,  a  State  violates  the  Failure-to-
Vote  Clause  only  if  it  removes  registrants  for  no  reason 
other than their failure to vote. 
  This  explanation  of  the  meaning  of  the  Failure-to-Vote 
Clause  merely  makes  explicit  what  was  implicit  in  the 

failure