AFAIK you are only registered with a party in Ohio if you voted in the primary for it in either 2010 or 2012.
This is the second time I've seen this claim in this thread. What is the basis for it?
The link from the Ohio laws posted earlier (http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3513.19) was a section of law that determines party affiliation in the case of a challenge to eligibility to vote at a primary election. There is nothing in that section of code to indicate that the same criteria will be applied somehow to someone's existing registration.
So where is the idea that Ohio automagically re-registers voters or somehow changes existing affiliations at some point between election cycles coming from? Not saying it's wrong, but where is this spelled out?
The way it works is that when you register to vote in Ohio you do not declare a party affiliation. When you vote in a primary, you can choose between Democrat, Republican, Independent (or possibly others if another party has a primary that year). Whatever party's ballot you ask for, the state records you as a member of that party.
For example, (I am an Ohio resident going to college in Wisconsin but I vote in Ohio) I asked for a Democratic ballot in the primary this year to vote for in my congressional primary. I had asked for a Republican ballot to vote for John McCain in the 2008 primary. From spring of 2008 until spring of 2012, I was listed as a registered Republican. I occasionally received political mail with my party listed on it as being Republican. This time, by voting in the Democratic Primary, I am now listed as a registered Democrat. I occasionally get mail sent to me that lists my party of registration as Democratic. I think if after some period of time you do not vote in either party's primary, your registration gets reset to Independent.
You can probably see the obvious flaws in reading too much into Ohio's partisan statistics.
