(The Center Square) – Secretary of State Frank LaRose is sending evidence of voter fraud to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and attorneys general in seven other states for prosecution.
LaRose announced Tuesday he found potential fraud in noncitizen registration and double votes in Ohio, Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina and Washington, D.C.
The accusations came during ongoing reviews of the Ohio Voter Registration Database with state and federal information. He said he found evidence of 30 noncitizen registrations in Ohio and 11 people who voted in Ohio, the other seven states, and Washington, D.C.
“We must send a clear message that election fraud won’t be tolerated,” LaRose said. “The only way to maintain Ohio’s high standard of election integrity is to enforce the law whenever it’s broken. Through the investigations of our Public Integrity Division’s Election Integrity Unit, we are rooting out lawbreakers so we can bring accountability and justice.”
LaRose established the nation’s first Public Integrity Division in 2022. It consolidated several of the secretary of state’s investigation efforts, including campaign finance reporting, voting system certification, voter registration integrity, the investigation of election law violations, data retention and transparency and cybersecurity protocols.
LaRose can investigate but not prosecute. He must refer potential crimes to the attorney general or local district attorneys.
Since 2019, LaRose has referred hundreds of incidents for prosecution.
“Critics of Ohio’s election integrity efforts may try to minimize the significance of these referrals, as though some small amount of election crime is acceptable,” LaRose wrote in a letter to Yost. “Even one illegal vote can spoil the outcome of an election for the citizenry at large, whether it be a school levy, majority control of a legislative chamber, or even a statewide election contest. Just this last election, a single vote in Licking County decided the outcome of a local levy after the final certified count.”
