(The Center Square) – Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent the names of nearly 600 noncitizens who registered to vote to Attorney General Dave Yost for possible prosecution.
Of those 597, LaRose says 138 appear to have voted in an election in Ohio when federal records showed they were not citizens.
“I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country do not vote in our elections,” LaRose said. “The law requires me to refer these individuals to the attorney general, and that’s what we’re doing today.”
LaRose launched an extensive citizenship verification audit of the state’s voting system this year. The program included cross-checks against records provided by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Homeland Security’s federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, the Social Security Administration, federal jury pool data, and other resources.
LaRose says he isn’t finished, and investigations into the citizenship status of voter registration records are ongoing. More removals could come before the November general election.
The last day to register to vote is Oct. 7.
In 2022, Ohioans amended the state’s constitution to prohibit local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote. Before that, municipalities could allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
In 2019, the small village of Yellow Springs voted to allow noncitizens to vote, but the constitutional amendment ended that practice.
LaRose’s most recent referrals come less than two weeks after he sent evidence of suspected election law violations to 20 county prosecutors around the state.
The counties where referrals were made include Butler, Champaign, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Hamilton, Harrison, Jackson, Knox, Licking, Mercer, Montgomery, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Warren and Wayne.
LaRose also removed nearly 160,000 people from the state’s voter rolls this year after registrations were abandoned for inactive for at least four consecutive years.
In Ohio, if a person fails to vote for four consecutive years, fails to confirm their registration and fails to respond to mailed notices, they can no longer vote without registering again.