As vote counting continued in the Arizona gubernatorial and Senate races days after Nov. 8, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose shared his outspoken opinion about the subject on Twitter.
“Dear Arizona, need some advice on how to run an election the right way?” said LaRose, a Republican who was elected to another term. “Your process is obviously not working.”
LaRose praised his office’s emphasis on election integrity and the commitment of county election boards to produce timely reports on races.
“Election night results were reported on election night, and that is something Ohioans expect,” LaRose told Fox News last week.
On Nov. 19, the lone general assembly race in question was in suburban Columbus, where incumbent Democratic state Rep. Richard Brown trailed Republican challenger Ronald Beach IV by a slim margin of 16,921 to 16,825, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website.
Provisional ballots are expected to determine the outcome.
While Republicans did not perform as well as expected nationally, Ohio saw a red tsunami that further strengthened the party’s statewide grip.
When final results are announced, Republicans will hold a supermajority of 68–21 or 67–22, depending on the winner.
Ohio Senate Republicans added one seat and expanded their control to 26–7.
Leading to Election Day, Ohio Republicans held a 64–35 supermajority over Democrats in the Ohio House and a 25–8 supermajority in the Ohio Senate.
The GOP swept every statewide race by double-digit margins. Gov. Mike DeWine trounced Democrat and former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley by more than 25 percent.
LaRose, Attorney General Dave Yost, treasurer Robert Sprague, and auditor Keith Faber also decisively won reelection.
Republicans also maintained control of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Sharon Kennedy will serve as the state’s next chief justice, and Justices Pat DeWine and Pat Fischer will return for another six-year term.
In the state’s highest profile race, Republican JD Vance defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan to replace retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman.
Though Donald Trump-endorsed J.R. Majewski lost his bid to replace longtime Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in northwest Ohio and 13-term Republican Rep. Steve Chabot fell to Democrat Greg Landsman in southwest Ohio, Republicans claimed 10 of the state’s 15 U.S. House seats.
Max Miller, who served as an aide to former President Trump, won in a district formerly represented by Republican Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump.
Like Florida—where Republicans experienced resounding success in the gubernatorial, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and general assembly races—Ohio is a state that has seen measures in recent years to address election integrity.
In 2021, Ohio completed a purge of 97,795 voter registrations.
State law dictates that voters who do not cast ballots for six consecutive years or do not respond to notices requesting they update their registration can be removed from the rolls.
Voters can avoid cancellation by requesting an absentee ballot application or by filling out a registration form at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
In October, LaRose unveiled the creation of the Public Integrity Division, which was established to incorporate all of the secretary of state office’s voter fraud investigations into one branch.
The division examines campaign finance reporting, cybersecurity, voting system certification, voter registration integrity, and election law violations among other parts of Ohio’s voting system, LaRose said.
“Our office has had that responsibility for a long time, but we’ve never had actual professional investigators that can dig into the facts, get the information, and make sure that we bring bad guys to justice,” LaRose told reporters after the announcement.
Though LaRose said there is a “crisis of confidence” in the electoral process nationwide, he added that Ohio is one of the nation’s leaders in secure, accurate, and accessible elections.
“This is a responsibility I take very seriously because this quite simply is about defending democracy,” LaRose said. “Our elections are being scrutinized like never before, and any lack of absolute confidence in the accuracy and honesty of those elections weakens the very foundation of our democracy. It’s the duty of my office to earn and maintain that trust.
“I think that Ohio runs elections better than any other state,” LaRose added. “There are a lot of reasons why Ohioans should be confident in their elections. I want the word to go out that if you commit an election-related crime in Ohio that you will be caught, and you will face justice for that, and that’s what this division is all about.”
On Nov. 8, Ohioans overwhelmingly passed a state constitutional amendment that says only adult U.S. citizens who legally reside and are registered to vote in Ohio for at least 30 days can cast a ballot in future state and local elections.
Before the issue was passed, the Ohio Constitution stated that “every citizen of the United States, of the age of eighteen years and has been registered to vote for thirty days is entitled to vote at all elections.”
The state constitution didn’t say that noncitizens can’t vote.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from casting ballots in federal elections.
A 1917 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court determined that the state constitution’s home rule, which gives cities control over their local issues, provided municipalities permission to expand voting rights in city elections.
The amendment, which was Issue 2 on the ballot, ensures that a city’s home rule doesn’t circumvent the law that only adult U.S. citizens can cast ballots.
The measure easily passed through the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature earlier this year.
LaRose has said that allowing noncitizens to vote would “cheapen the value of citizenship.”
“The state law has always been clear that only U.S. citizens can vote in state elections and there is a federal law that prevents non-citizens from voting in federal elections,” LaRose said in a statement.
Simply put, LaRose added, the amendment should be considered “common sense.”
“Issue 2 will really just codify into our state constitution the thing that has been assumed for a long time and that is the right to vote in Ohio is a right reserved exclusively for U.S. citizens,” LaRose said before Election Day.
