Ohio Secretary of State makes visit to the fair

WAPAKONETA — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, delivered “election” results live at the Auglaize County Fair Thursday, capping a veterans-themed mock election.

The election asked voters to chose favorites among lists of “candidates.”

The U.S. Army’s mascot, a mule, defeated the other branches with 57 votes. The favorite Veterans Service Commission officer, was a closer vote. Jessica Wegesin, won the category with 75 votes, followed by

Director Rob Wiss with 71 and Eric Pugh with 65.

The best looking uniform among the branches of service went to the U.S. Marine Corps, with 79 votes.

“It’s not the uniform, it’s how you wear it,” LaRose said.

The best branch went to the U.S. Army with 103 votes, which brought a smile from LaRose, who served as a Green Beret.

“Last year we saw how important it is that an election be well run in the state of Ohio,” LaRose said. “When the world was watching, Ohio did very well.”

He gave credit to the 88 county boards of election and their bipartisan teams for their work in running fair elections.

“We knew going into 2020 it was going to be challenging,” LaRose said.

He worked with Michelle Wilcox, the Auglaize County Board of Elections director, then president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, to create a Ready For November task force to work through pandemic challenges.

LaRose said his office helps people vote and helps them start new businesses.

“In both regards, Ohio set records,” LaRose said.

New businesses totaling 171,000 formed last year and nearly 6 million Ohioans cast a ballot.

He noted 94 percent of requested absentee ballots were completed and counted, and Ohio officials recorded the lowest number of provisional ballots in 2020.

“We had a saying when I was in the military,” LaRose said. “You sweat in training so you don’t bleed in battle. It’s the simple idea of preparation. You do the work so that when the heat is on, you are ready to perform. That is exactly what we did in Ohio.”

LaRose explained why they had a mock election.

“There are too many people that believe things that aren’t true,” LaRose said, adding conspiracies and false information have been circulating.

“It’s important for Ohioans to know that here in the Buckeye State we have elections that you can trust,” LaRose said. “What it gave people an opportunity to do is come up and ask their questions.”

LaRose said election officials

answered a variety of questions throughout the voting period.

“They could ask questions like ‘Hey, is this voting machine connected to the internet?’ The answer is of course, not voting machines in Ohio are never connected to the internet,” LaRose said.

He said county board of election officials were also able to explain how they oversee elections in a bipartisan manner, and how post-election audits are conducted.

“When we did our post-election audit state-wide, the result in Ohio was 99.98 percent accurate,” LaRose said, calling it

“an incredible level of accuracy.”

LaRose serves in the

Army Reserves and thanked veterans and gave special recognition to Vietnam veterans.

“In many cases these

men and women didn’t get the welcome they deserved,” LaRose said, recalling his own experience returning from duty in Iraq.

He said a group of Vietnam veterans were at the airport at 2 a.m. to greet him and his fellow soldiers when their plane landed back in the states.

LaRose also said signing up to be a poll worker could be a second call of duty for veterans and encouraged those in attendance to sign up.