(The Center Square) – Ohio’s push to remove noncitizens from voter rolls continues.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced a directive to local boards of election to continue to review and remove voters shown as noncitizens by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database.
“Ohioans have issued a clear and constitutional mandate that in our state, American elections are only for American citizens,” LaRose said. “It’s my duty under the law to ensure our voter registration rolls are honest and accurate, and we’re doing that more aggressively than ever before by converting what used to be an annual citizenship audit to part of our ongoing, routine voter list maintenance protocols.”
In October, LaRose sued the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security for citizenship records he said were being withheld. He said the administration was engaging in obstruction and called the acts an abuse of power.
That followed pressure from 16 Republican attorneys general, including Ohio’s Dave Yost, on the Biden administration to provide voter registration information to states, particularly when it relates to citizenship status.
The state prosecutors “raise grave concerns that by failing to work with states to verify voter registration information, your office has failed to discharge its duty ahead of a national election,” a letter to then-Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
LaRose believes the Trump administration will provide the information.
“I’m confident that with this new administration, we’ll be able to give states better access to these records so we can more effectively enforce citizenship voting requirements,” LaRose said.
LaRose told boards to remove anyone who does not respond to notices sent by his office asking for proof of citizenship or registration cancellation, actually submitted documentation that shows they are noncitizens or those confirmed as non-citizens by the federal database.
Anyone removed from voter rolls can appeal and cast a provisional ballot.
In 2022, Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment, with more than 76% of the vote, stating that only United States citizens may vote in all elections in the state.
