The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
State finds 385 non-citizens registered to vote
The Ohio Secretary of State’s office has identified an additional 82 non-U.S. citizens who have registered and voted in at least one election in Ohio.
Altogether, Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office identified an additional 385 noncitizens who are improperly registered in the state.
Husted announced the findings in a news release Feb. 27. This is the third time his office has done a review of Ohio’s Statewide Registered Voter Database to identify non-citizens on the voter role. The other two were completed in 2013 and 2015. Including this most recent review, the office has found 821 non-citizens registered to vote and 126 of those who have actually cast ballots.
In a statement Husted said the 82 recently discovered non-citizens who have registered and cast ballots “will be immediately referred to law
enforcement for further investigation and possible prosecution.”
The other 303 who registered but did not cast ballots will be sent letters informing them that non-citizens are not eligible to vote and requesting they cancel their registration. Follow-up letters will be sent to any individuals who remain on the rolls after 30 days. Those who remain after being contacted twice will be referred to law enforcement, Husted said.
According to the 2017 summary,
three of the 385 noncitizens were registered in Lake County, but none of them cast ballots. None were registered in Geauga County, according to the summary. Lorain County had nine noncitizens who were registered, including one person who cast at least one ballot.
Husted’s office found noncitizens registered in 42 of Ohio’s 88 counties and 32 had incidents of non-citizens casting ballots.
Franklin County had the most registered by far with 92, followed by Cuyahoga County with 61. Cuyahoga had the most who cast ballots with 16 while Franklin had the second most with 14.
“I have a responsibility to preserve the integrity of Ohio’s elections system,” Husted stated in the release. “When you consider that in Ohio we have had 112 elections decided by one vote or tied in the last three years, every case of illegal voting must be taken seriously and elections officials must have every resource available to them to respond accordingly.”
Husted noted, however, none of the cases where a non-citizens is shown to have cast a ballot occurred in jurisdictions where an election was decided by one vote or tied.
“In light of the national discussion about illegal voting it is important to inform our discussions with facts,” Husted said. “The fact is voter fraud happens, it is rare and when it happens, we hold people accountable.”