Columbus — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has referred evidence of non-citizen voter registrations to Attorney General Dave Yost for potential prosecution. LaRose announced the referral today, highlighting concerns about individuals who have registered to vote despite not being U.S. citizens, as required by Ohio’s state constitution.
According to LaRose, his office has identified 597 individuals who registered to vote in Ohio without holding U.S. citizenship. Among these, 138 individuals are suspected of having cast ballots in Ohio elections while their citizenship status was not valid, based on state and federal records. LaRose emphasized, “I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country do not vote in our elections.”
This referral follows a comprehensive audit conducted earlier this year, which led to the removal of 154,995 inactive and abandoned voter registrations from the state’s database. LaRose’s office also completed a rigorous citizenship verification audit, cross-referencing voter registration data with records from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE database, the Social Security Administration, and other sources.
LaRose plans to expand the audit to include the federal Person Centric Query System (PCQS), also managed by DHS, to further ensure the integrity of voter registrations. Ongoing investigations into citizenship status are expected to result in additional voter record removals before the November general election.
Ohio law mandates that the Secretary of State investigate election law violations and report them to the attorney general or other prosecuting authorities for action. To support these duties, LaRose established the Office of Data Analytics and Archives and a full-time Public Integrity Division to enhance election administration and oversight.
Earlier this month, LaRose announced an expansion of the Public Integrity Division, adding three new experts with backgrounds in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the United States Secret Service. The Ohio General Assembly is also considering legislation to make the Election Integrity Unit a permanent part of the office’s functions.
