Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has announced the formal referral of additional evidence of 78 illegal noncitizen voter registrations and voting activity to the Ohio Attorney General for potential prosecution, as today marks another National Voter Registration Day.

which is an excellent opportunity to remind Franklin County residents who are not registered that they have until Monday, October 6, 2025, to register to be eligible to vote in the November 4, 2025, General Election. Ohio voters who are registered but have moved recently also need to update their new address by the same deadline.

During an ongoing audit of Ohio’s Statewide Voter Registration Database, investigators with the Secretary of State’s Election Integrity Unit used newly available state and federal records to uncover evidence of an additional 78 noncitizen voter registrations, including nine individuals who cast potentially fraudulent votes.

“My office has a zero-tolerance policy for election crime in Ohio, and I’m hopeful that our prosecutors will as well,” said Secretary LaRose.

“Even one illegal vote can spoil the outcome of an election, which is why we established the first-ever Election Integrity Unit in this state to root out lawbreakers and demand accountability and justice.”

Background:

• Ohio law empowers the Secretary of State to “investigate the administration of election laws, frauds, and irregularities in elections in any county, and report violations of election laws to the attorney general or prosecuting attorney, or both, for prosecution.”
• To better fulfill these statutory duties, Secretary LaRose announced in 2022 the creation of a Public Integrity Division in his office to focus full-time resources on investigations and to better assist with criminal prosecutions.
• The office’s team of investigators, including those with backgrounds from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, has focused on enhancing their collaboration with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to improve the quality of evidence referred for potential prosecution.
• The division consolidates many of the office’s longstanding investigative functions, including campaign finance reporting, voting system certification, voter registration integrity, the investigation of election law violations, data retention, transparency, and cybersecurity protocols.
• The Ohio General Assembly recently passed legislation to make the division’s Election Integrity Unit a permanent function of the office.
• The Secretary of State’s office has referred hundreds of election crime cases to prosecutors since Secretary LaRose took office in 2019.

Secretary LaRose has also led a national effort to persuade the federal government to provide state election offices with better access to citizenship data and other federal records in order to more effectively keep voter rolls accurate and investigate election crimes. 

After Secretary LaRose sued the Biden administration for this access, the Trump administration collaborated with Ohio to create a new searchable data resource available to state election officials.

“States have the responsibility to keep accurate voter rolls and ensure election integrity,” LaRose added.

“In order to meet that responsibility, we need more access to data from the federal government. I will continue to push until we have the resources, we need to do our jobs to the standard Ohioans deserve.”

Meanwhile, the Franklin County Board of Elections has reminded eligible residents to register as today marks another National Voter Registration Day.

“It is an excellent opportunity to remind Franklin County residents who are not registered that they have until Monday, October 6, 2025, to register to be eligible to vote in the November 4, 2025, General Election. Ohio voters who are registered but have moved recently also need to update their new address by the same deadline.”

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