Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced on Oct. 17 that he has uncovered 75 more voters who may have cast ballots twice in the 2020 general election.
Some of the allegations contend that people voted in one state before casting another ballot in Ohio.
In September, La Rose’s office released a statement saying that four people had been referred to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and county prosecutors for potential voter fraud violations in the 2020 election.
LaRose also said in August that 11 people were under investigation after they allegedly provided documentation to the BMV that showed they were not citizens on at least two occasions.
These people were mailed two notices at the address where they are registered to vote that asked for them to cancel their voter registration or tell the secretary of state’s office they had.
This follows another 13 possible cases of fraud that were discovered in 2021.
LaRose, who is running for re-election in three weeks, took office in 2019. Since then, 630 people have been accused of voter fraud. Among the accusations are non-citizens voting, people who cast two ballots, and people who voted in place of a dead person.
“Voter fraud is exceedingly rare in Ohio,” said LaRose, who is opposed in the Nov. 8 general election by Democratic nominee Chelsea Clark and independent candidate Terpsehore Maras.
“The only way to strengthen the confidence of the voters is by working every day to earn their trust,” LaRose added. “Ohioans should know if you violate election law, we’ll catch you. Every vote matters.”
In the 2020 election, 5.97 million out of 8 million registered voters cast ballots in Ohio. More than 3 million voted for President Donald Trump compared to 2.6 million for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. Trump won Ohio by 8 percentage points in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
Earlier this month, LaRose announced 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 said during an interview with a Columbus, Ohio, TV station.
To verify potential instances of voter fraud, Ohio and the partnering states cross-match their voter history. Each case is then investigated in conjunction with the secretary of state’s office or local police departments in the additional state.
According to state law, the criminal act is the second vote, LaRose’s office explained. The latest investigation of the 75 voters included people who also cast ballots in one of the following locations: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Texas, Washington, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin.
