(THE CENTER SQUARE) – Of the nearly 6 million votes cast in Ohio during the Nov. 2020 general election, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says 27 potentially were illegal and have been referred to local prosecutors.
LaRose sent 62 referrals of potential election fraud to either Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost or other prosecutors. Of those, 31 were noncitizens who registered to vote but did not cast a ballot. The others may have cast a ballot in the 2020 general election or illegally in an earlier election.
A record number of Ohio voters voted in the 2020 general election, and LaRose continues to point to the state as an example of secure elections.
“Here are the facts: Ohio smashed voter turnout records in 2020 while providing Ohioans a secure election,” LaRose said. “Our state is proof positive you don’t have to choose between secure or convenient elections – we have both. In Ohio, 'easy to vote' and 'hard to cheat' aren’t mutually exclusive. At the end of the day, these referrals are all about accountability. Lawbreakers should know we take election security seriously, and we won’t tolerate even one unlawful vote to go unpunished on my watch.”
The cases LaRose sent to prosecutors were in three categories: noncitizen voter registration or voting, voting on behalf of a deceased person and double voting.
The majority deal with noncitizen voter registration or voting, which included 39 people who each provided the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles with documentation that showed them as noncitizens on at least two occasions. LaRose also said each of them twice were mailed notices to cancel their voter registration.
There were nine cases where a voter potentially cast a ballot in two different counties, LaRose said, and 14 deceased individuals who potentially voted.
LaRose also said additional investigations are ongoing of people who have voted in Ohio and in another state.
