COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Several disputes over voter rights in Ohio remained unresolved Tuesday as the state began accepting early voting in this fall’s election for president, a key U.S. Senate race and a redistricting measure.
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose had not yet responded to Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, which informed him last week that voters in several counties were being systematically removed from the rolls due to third-party challenges. The advocacy groups alleged that the actions violated the provisions of the National Voting Registration Act.
LaRose’s office said he cast a tie vote, leaving most challenged voters in one of the counties, Delaware, on the rolls. He is reviewing claims in three additional provinces.
National groups linked to former President Donald Trump have facilitated these citizen-driven efforts to systematically question the legitimacy of large numbers of voter registrations. LaRose praised their efforts and believes accurate voter rolls are a core tenet of any well-run election, said spokesman Dan Lusheck.
“Ohio runs some of the most transparent elections in the country, and we are proud of that,” Lusheck said.
Meanwhile, minority Democrats in the Ohio Statehouse continued to question LaRose’s removal of 155,000 voter registrations in August. He said the legally required actions targeted the registration data of inactive, non-citizen, deceased or otherwise ineligible voters.
On Monday, state Rep. Elliot Forhan, a Cleveland Democrat, filed a formal challenge asking the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to reinstate 741 voters in the county — a Democratic stronghold that could be crucial in U.S. Sen. Sherrod’s tight reelection bid Brown vs. Cleveland. businessman Bernie Moreno.
State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, another Cleveland-area Democrat, sent a letter to LaRose on Tuesday reiterating her earlier request for additional data on the agency’s removal processes. Her office discovered more than a thousand wrongfully removed voters in Cuyahoga County alone using previously released data, she said, and requested a third-party audit.
“If Frank LaRose cannot ensure that all eligible voters in Ohio have the right to vote, the least he can do is give me the public records so I can do it for him,” Sweeney said in a statement.
LaRose’s office had no immediate comment.
Also yet to be resolved is the Ohio Democratic Party’s September lawsuit challenging a LaRose directive that prevents people who help voters with disabilities return their ballots from using drop boxes.
The secretary issued his order after a federal judge in July struck down parts of Ohio’s sweeping 2023 election law that would have allowed more classes of people to help voters with disabilities cast their ballots. It confirmed that the helpers could do this, but added a requirement that they leave the ballots at the Board of Elections Offices and sign a form confirming their identity.
LaRose called the measure a precaution against ballot harvesting. Democrats said it’s illegal.
Three of the seven justices of the Ohio Supreme Court — two Democrats and one Republican, all of whom are seeking to take office this fall — have recused themselves from the case. A fourth was asked, but declined.
The Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Ohio said Tuesday they have taken action to intervene in the case.
“Secretary LaRose has taken critical steps to secure Ohio’s elections, but once again Democrats are trying to dismantle the common sense protections that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” said Michael Whatley, president of the national commission, in a statement. “This is yet another thinly veiled attempt to abolish election safeguards and intervene just before the elections – and we will stop them.”
