Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio voters gave Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno a harsh welcome Wednesday during an appearance at The City Club of Cleveland. Unruffled, Moreno defended Republican policy and painted the Trump administration in glowing terms.

“He should, and probably will, end up getting the Nobel Peace Prize,” Moreno said of the president.

In a discussion moderated by NBC News’ Henry Gomez, Moreno praised the Trump administration and its centerpiece budget legislation, The One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The measure makes permanent large tax breaks from Trump’s first administration and adds on temporary deductions for overtime pay and tips that expire in 2028. Opponents criticize Republicans for paying for those tax cuts by rolling back safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

But Moreno claimed there’s no cut.

“The facts are, over the next 10 years, we will spend 20% more on Medicaid nationally than we’re spending now,” Moreno said. “Medicaid spending will be increased by 20%, that’s a fact.”

Despite insisting throughout the event that “those are just facts” and encouraging people to “look it up,” Moreno’s math is fuzzy.

Nonpartisan researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation note CBO forecasts predict a $911 billion cut to the program and an increase of 10 million uninsured Americans. Ohio Capital Journal asked Moreno’s office about the figure but got no response.

One possibility? He could be comparing apples and oranges.

In June, the GOP-controlled, U.S. House Budget Committee put out a press release claiming the Congressional Budget Office had “set the record straight.” But the committee argued Medicaid spending would climb more than 30% — not 20%.

They arrived at that figure by comparing projected Medicaid costs in 2034 with the current ones. That, of course, ignores the likely increase in program spending if Trump’s legislation hadn’t passed.

The CBO described that comparison in the very same paragraph, stating, “CBO estimates that enacting the Medicaid provisions of H.R. 1 would reduce Medicaid spending by $125.2 billion in 2034.”

Moreno also defended the Trump administration’s approach to tariffs: “We need to make more things here in America so that we have good, high paying middle class jobs — that’s just a fact.”

And he voiced support for the idea of taking an equity stake in Intel.

“If a company is going to ask for help, if a company is going to ask for money, the taxpayer should get equity so we have the upside,” Moreno said.

“As a company becomes successful, we can sell that equity and recoup the money for the taxpayer,” he added. “To me, that’s common sense.”

Moreno answers elicited jeers throughout the discussion with Gomez. When the event turned to audience questions, it didn’t get much friendlier.

One person asked what he was doing to protect NASA following major job cuts and another sought his help with changes to the 529 education savings plan making it easier to donate left over money.

Moreno assured the first that NASA is important for national security and the city of Cleveland.

“A lot of that technology and knowledge lives here in Cleveland,” Moreno said before predicting a “big increase in funding.” He promised the other attendee he’d investigate the 529 issue and work on fitting it into upcoming legislation.

Different speakers pressed him on his support for Israel’s war in Gaza and what he’s doing to protect Ukraine from Russia’s invasion.

“This is a total problem caused by Hamas that could be fixed by Hamas, and Israel is defending itself and I support them unequivocally,” Moreno said of the war in Gaza.

As for Ukraine, Moreno said, “We cannot allow 6,000, 7,000 innocent people to die every single week. It is a terrible, terrible situation what’s happening there, and I, for one, I’m on the side of peace.”

One attendee asked about Trump’s recent flirtation with prohibiting mail-in voting. The senator argued the last time Congress proposed federal election laws, Democrats were in charge.

“We’re on the side of states’ rights, and saying, hey, states should manage that,” Moreno said. “But at the same time, it is a federal obligation to make sure those states are doing a good job.”

Notably, the Trump administration is leaning on GOP-led states to redraw maps mid-cycle to advantage the party. Among other changes, the Democratic legislation Moreno referenced would have required states to establish independent redistricting commissions.

Another attendee asked Moreno about changing his tune about the 2020 election and Jan. 6.

“What’s the truth about the 2020 election? Was it stolen, Senator?” the man asked. “And what’s the truth about Jan. 6, Senator? Were they patriots or felons?”

Moreno pointed to Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“That story was supposedly Russian misinformation, which it was clearly not, and did that alter the election? Absolutely it did,” he said.

“I get the question,” Moreno added, “was Joe Biden the legitimate president of the United States for four years? He was legitimately the worst president of the United States for four years.”

Moreno did not address Jan. 6.

Cleveland’s event is far from the first time Moreno has come home, but his visits have generally relied on private tours and press conferences. Critics have lobbed abuse at Moreno for failing to meet with constituents.

When Ohio Capital Journal reached out to Moreno’s office about events with voters, a spokeswoman sent a press release describing a three-day, 18-county tour promoting the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this month.

Those visits included a dairy, a restaurant, a steel plant, and a factory. But the events weren’t widely publicized, and most appear to be made up of invited guests. Although the press release notes Moreno visited Ohio’s three most populous counties, it doesn’t mention coverage from any of the numerous news outlets in those areas.

Frustrated with their lack of access, Moreno’s critics have have taken to hosting regular protests outside his Ohio offices. They showed up outside The City Club, as well. In a statement, organizer Ellen Brown said, “he doesn’t represent all of Ohio.”

“He refuses to do a town hall with constituents of different points of view, he’s allowing the executive branch to take power from the Senate as he votes with the president 100%, and the budget bill hurts Ohioans in favor of billionaires,” Brown continued. “He’s allowing illegal deportations against immigrants and he’s an immigrant himself.”

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A coalition of government watchdog groups are warning state legislation could hobble Ohio’s initiative process. Direct democracy has been available to Ohioans since 1912, and citizen-led groups can organize initiated statutes or constitutional amendments.

The proposals would create strict new paperwork requirements and add other administrative hurdles like requiring many circulators wear a badge identifying themselves as “paid” even if they’re given something as small as a pen for signature collection.

Above and beyond changes to the initiative process, the bills would also eliminate ballot drop boxes and require all voters to show proof of citizenship to cast a ballot.

“Bottom line, this is attack on direct democracy,” Jen Miller from Ohio’s League of Women Voters argued. “This is an attack on local control. It’s an attempt to bully, intimidate, harass, and possibly prosecute people just because they want to take part in democracy,”

Nitty-gritty

Common Cause Ohio Executive Director Catherine Turcer praised the people who grab clipboards and collect signatures to put proposals on the ballot.

“This extreme legislation is an attempt to bully, intimidate, and hassle these front-line heroes,” she argued.

The paperwork involved in signature gathering is already complex and time consuming. She explained circulators have to fill out a standard form — name, address, employer, etc. — when they turn in petitions. But the new bills would ratchet up the stakes of that relatively banal procedure. Right now, if the circulator messes something up, they can cross it out and write their initials.

Opponents warn of harm to eligible voters if Ohio lawmakers require citizenship documents

“And it is accepted as a change that was legally made,” Turcer explained. “House bill 233, and Senate bill 153, would make it so that any error here, anything that you made a mistake on, it would mean that the entire booklet would be invalid. And just, I can’t imagine the number of signatures that would just get tossed out.”

She added that provisions requiring circulators to wear a badge identifying themselves as “paid” if they accept “anything of value,” sets an unrealistic standard.

“If I were to give a clipboard and a pen to a volunteer, and a t-shirt that says the name of the campaign,” she explained, “anything of value would then mean that a circulator would have to get a badge.”

That’s more paperwork, she said, and thus more chances for something to go wrong.

Turcer also criticized a provision requiring an individual to be registered to vote prior to signing a petition, rather than by the time the petition gets filed with election officials.

“One of the things that we often do is check registration before we before people sign,” Turcer explained, “so that we can get somebody registered as we’re doing a ballot measure.”

Taking that opportunity away doesn’t just reduce their signature count, Turcer argued, “it also stops that opportunity for a voter-to-voter conversation about, well, this is why you should get registered. These are the things that are coming up on the upcoming ballot.”

Stakes

Ohio Unity Coalition Executive Director Petee Talley drew a straight line from 2023’s Issue 1 defeat, which rejected a GOP-led effort to make it harder to amend the state constitution, and the current slate of legislation. She argued the latest bills are “retribution” for that defeat.

Talley took particular offense at the provision requiring signature gatherers wear a badge if they’re compensated.

“If I wanted to give a can of cold pop and a slice of pizza to someone and maybe even a t-shirt that (Turcer) alluded to, suddenly they’re going to have to add wearing a badge to all of that stuff?” she asked.

“It’s nothing but intimidation. It’s nothing but bullying,” she argued. “It’s voter harassment, and this is an attack on our voice and our rights, and we’re not going to stand for it.”

Miller walked through the follow-on consequences of requiring paid circulator badges. Some voters will mistakenly think volunteers who got a slice of pizza are actually getting a paycheck, she said.

“We should expect opposition trackers attempting to catch circulators without their badges,” she added. “And with the increase in uncivil and polarized rhetoric in political venues, this could result in intimidation or even violence against circulators or voters signing those petitions.”

What’s more, Miller said, “boards of elections would have to become badge police.” It’s a task they don’t have the money, manpower or expertise to carry out, she argued. The requirement voters be registered before signing a petition? Miller said that might be a problem, too.

“We don’t even know if boards of elections have the technical capacity right now to verify that a voter registration was valid on the date that the voter signed,” she said.

One reason that might not have come up is that, so far, county boards haven’t been able to weigh in. The bill’s first and second hearing happened during the early voting period for this May’s primary election. The third hearing landed on the day boards had to certify the election.

Asked whether she thought that was intentional, Miller said, “I don’t think it matters. It’s shameful, either way. There is no more important constituent when it comes to democracy bills than the boards of elections.”

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In a final message ahead of Election Day, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose reminded voters about basic procedures like bringing a photo ID and what to expect as returns begin rolling in on Tuesday night.

Despite holding the briefing to keep voters informed, LaRose refused to allow the Ohio Capital Journal to attend in person. This story was reported via an Ohio Channel livestream.

Election Night reporting

LaRose said the state “will report 100% of our Election Day unofficial vote total,” but also warned the races too close to call won’t be settled until the official canvass three weeks later. He proposed a hypothetical race in which one candidate held a 60,000 vote lead but there were 300,000 outstanding absentee or provisional ballots.

“By definition, that race is not over,” LaRose insisted. “Numerically speaking, there are still enough votes that could change the result of that election. And so it’s important that we report that properly, that Ohioans understand how that works.”

According to the tally on Ohio’s early vote dashboard, there are more than 152,000 outstanding absentee ballots. If a race is too close to call, LaRose said, “it is going to be a wait before we can release the results. That’s not us delaying or waiting arbitrarily, it’s us following the law.”

It’s an important warning because in recent elections former President Donald Trump and his supporters have seized on delays to make allegations of fraud.

Center for Election Innovation and Research Executive Director David Becker explained while Trump wanted to “stop the count” in Pennsylvania last presidential election because he was ahead, he wanted officials to keep counting in Arizona where he trailed.

“I think we should expect to hear especially from former President Trump, since he’s done this before, that where he’s behind, he’ll say, continue the count, and where he’s ahead, he’ll say, stop the count,” Becker said. “But that’s not how it works. We have a total number of ballots, and we don’t stop until we count all of the ballots.”

As for the chances of some county election officials delaying certification over real or perceived fraud, LaRose downplayed the possibility.

“If there were some,” LaRose said, “and to be clear, there are not — I go to dozens of boards of elections every month, I’ve been all over the state visiting boards, I’ve heard no inclination whatsoever that anybody would be even thinking about that — but if they would, then again, there are legal remedies to compel public officials to do their job.”

LaRose noted as well that the first wave of results will be made up of absentee ballots — both those cast early in person and those sent through the mail or returned to drop boxes. It’s a provision that makes processing results far quicker on election night, and that officials in battleground states like Pennsylvania had urged their lawmakers to put in place. Pennsylvania state lawmakers didn’t take them up on that.

Election Day procedures

Polls will open on Election Day at 6:30 in the morning and close at 7:30 at night. As always, if people are in line when the polls officially close, they’ll still be allowed to vote so they should not leave line.

LaRose took a victory lap after winning a handful of voting related legal challenges. Voting rights groups took him to court arguing recent policy changes could make voting harder for those helping family members and recently naturalized citizens.

In both cases, the court allowed LaRose’s changes to remain in place.

The secretary also warned voters not to wear clothing at a polling location that could be perceived as advocating one candidate or another. State law prohibits campaigning at a polling location, and county boards sought guidance from the secretary on where to draw the line.

LaRose explained clothing with a candidate’s name or statements like “vote for” or “vote against” are clearly out of bounds. But a voter showing up in a T-shirt with the local high school’s mascot on it doesn’t amount to campaigning for a levy: “That’s getting ridiculous, right?”

All the same, he argued, some clothing makes a clear statement even if it’s indirect. He pointed to people at showing up at GOP campaign events over the weekend in garbage bags or reflective vests related to various “garbage” comments in the news last week.

But LaRose said election workers are not interested in “creating a scene.”

“So, if somebody insists on wearing that clothing, we’re going to write their name down, turn it over to the county board of elections — which could choose to pursue prosecution because it is a crime — but we’re not going to keep that person from voting, certainly.”

“They’re going to cast their ballot,” he went on, “they’re going to get their ‘I Voted’ sticker, and they’re going to be on their way.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

As of Friday morning, almost 1.4 million Ohioans had already cast their ballot in this November’s election. But with Election Day drawing close, Ohio’s Secretary of State and watch dog organizations have filed new lawsuits tied to voting.

Secretary Frank LaRose’s case related to his ability to investigate supposed noncitizen registrations and has no real chance of affecting who can vote in the current election. But as election watchdogs have argued for months, it could serve as fodder for future claims of election fraud if the election doesn’t go a certain way.

Meanwhile, the ACLU of Ohio is challenging LaRose’s office for reinstating a questionnaire used if naturalized citizens are challenged at the polls. In 2006, a federal court permanently blocked the underlying state statute requiring naturalized Ohioans provide proof of their citizenship to vote. The ACLU case asks the court to force LaRose to issue a directive to county boards ordering them not to use the form.

LaRose’s case

Secretary Frank LaRose’s case demands the Department of Homeland Security turn over data the secretary believes would help him verify the citizenship status of people registered to vote in Ohio. The problem is DHS doesn’t maintain some consolidated list of citizens against which LaRose could check the voter rolls.

In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson explained “DHS does not comment on pending litigation,” but added, “more broadly, (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) has engaged with Ohio and will continue to correspond with them directly through official channels.”

The agency operates a program known as SAVE, which Ohio uses, that allows agencies to check an individual’s immigration status by inputting their name, date of birth and a DHS issued number.

LaRose contends SAVE is “insufficient” because the state rarely has the required DHS identifier to check a particular filer’s status. He cited examples of people registered to vote who previously attested to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that they weren’t a citizen.

“Many of those individuals may have become citizens in the meantime, but Ohio is simply unable to confirm one way or the other,” LaRose argued.

He contends with access to a pair of other DHS databases his office could cobble together what it needs, and that federal law requires the agency to comply with his request. In a letter earlier this month, the agency wrote back saying the state’s access to SAVE was sufficient.

In a press release, LaRose argued “The Biden-Harris Administration is engaging in obstruction and outright abuse of power to prevent us from removing noncitizens from our voter rolls. I take my duty seriously, so if they want a fight over the integrity of our elections, they’ve got it.”

Last week Attorney General Dave Yost announced he’d found six instances illegal voting among the 600-plus cases LaRose’s office flagged out of the roughly 8 million Ohioans registered to vote. Shortly after Yost’s announcement, Cuyahoga County officials said one of those defendants had been dead for two years.

Another problem is the timing of LaRose’s filing. The secretary has been publicly complaining about lack of access since at least May of this year, and his complaint describes requesting access several times starting in July.

But he only filed his complaint on Thursday — less than two weeks before Election Day.

For months, voting rights groups have warned federal legislation requiring proof of citizenship and mass voter registration challenges aren’t meant to actually fix a problem. Instead, it’s a way of seeding the idea that the coming election is suspect. Back in July, Sean Morales-Doyle from the Brennan Center argued “that way, if the elections don’t play out the way that these folks want them to, they can use that belief to overturn the result, they can turn immigrants into a scapegoat.”

The case against LaRose

The ACLU of Ohio filed a contempt motion against the secretary for reviving a ‘show me your papers’ provision in state law that a federal judge derided as “shameful.” That statute, which the judge permanently enjoined in 2006, laid out a series of questions that should be posed to naturalized citizens who are challenged at the polls. It concludes with a requirement that the challenged voter provide proof of their citizenship before being given a regular ballot.

“Requiring naturalized citizens to bring additional documentation to verify their eligibility to vote is not only burdensome and discriminatory, it’s unlawful,” ACLU of Ohio legal director Freda Levenson argued in a press release. “After nearly 20 years of compliance with the federal injunction, Secretary LaRose suddenly decided to defy the injunction and impose an 11th-hour requirement forcing naturalized citizens to produce these papers.”

The ACLU’s complaint explains that following the court’s decision, the form used for challenges simply required to answer under oath “Are you a citizen of the United States?” If they answered in the affirmative, they were given a regular ballot.

But earlier this month LaRose revised that form and reincorporated the portions requiring challenged voters provide proof of citizenship.

“Not only did the Secretary reinstate the enjoined language, he specifically invoked the statute that was the subject of this Court’s injunction as his support,” the ACLU filing states. “As a result, challenged persons are once again unable to vote a regular ballot and must instead vote a provisional ballot if they fail to provide the required documentation.”

The Secretary has faced criticism earlier this year after a routine audit improperly swept in naturalized citizens and then the secretary ran an additional audit without firm legal grounding to do so.

The ACLU noted prior to filing their case, they sent notice to LaRose’s office explaining the new form violated the court’s injunction. The secretary’s office acknowledged their communication but declined to change the form.

“Once again,” their filing argued, “the Secretary has transformed naturalized citizens whose qualifications to vote are challenged into second-class citizen[s] or second-class American[s].”

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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced six indictments for voter fraud Tuesday stemming from referrals made by Secretary of State Frank LaRose earlier this year. Even as Yost insisted on the importance of the investigations and prosecutions he sought to calibrate the scope of the issue.

Voting is a “sacred right” Yost insisted, and the six charges represent less than 1% of the referrals made by LaRose’s office. The AG added he doesn’t expect jail time in any of the cases and expressed minor frustrations with the quality of referrals.

Still, after a months-long drumbeat about alleged voter fraud, Yost’s announcement coming just two weeks before Election Day could fuel claims of a stolen election.

Yost’s role and authority

Yost’s office received more than 600 referrals of alleged voter fraud from the Secretary of State, which the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigated. Of those referrals only 138 included allegations of illegal voting — the remainder had to do with issues like improper registrations.

The Attorney General stressed that illegal voting is a “strict liability” offense.

“Think about a speeding ticket,” Yost said. “You are stopped for going 52 miles an hour. You thought it was a 50 mile an hour zone. Cop tells you it’s 35. Doesn’t make any difference that you didn’t intend to speed, that you didn’t know that you were speeding, or even that you were reckless or negligent about it — you’re just liable, and ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

But his office can only pursue charges after the local county prosecutor is given “adequate time” to take them up on its own. In all, Yost successfully brought six charges against lawful permanent residents.

Ramesh Patel faces one count of illegal voting in Cuyahoga County

Lorinda Miller faces two counts of illegal voting in Summit County

Nicholas Fontaine faces one count of illegal voting in Portage County

Ahmed Aden, Van Thuy Cooper and Maria Dearaujo all face one count of illegal voting in Franklin County.

Each one of the defendants allegedly voted in two or more elections between 2008 and 2020. They face fourth degree felonies which carry a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and five years’ probation post-release. But given the facts of the cases Yost said its unlikely any of them would face time behind bars.

“Absent criminal history or being part of a criminal enterprise, I don’t see these as being good use of expensive state prison beds,” Yost explained. “That being said, this is important. The right to vote is sacred. It is part of our exercise of sovereignty as a self-governing people.”

“If you’re not a citizen, you don’t get a say, period, and there ought to be consequences if you act differently,” he added.

The charges in context

Zeroing in on the 138 referrals of alleged illegal voting his office received, Yost argued, “There are not enough of these cases, even if every single one is justified, (…) that’s simply not enough that it would have changed any of those elections.”

The AG also voiced some frustration with the Secretary for referring so many cases in which the only offense had to do with registration.

“I need to have sit down with the Secretary of State about the value of those cases where there was no voting — I think that we ought to be focusing on the voting,” Yost said.

“I’m thinking that I don’t really want to pull people off of officer-involved critical incident investigations, child rapists, murderers to be chasing voter registration cases for past elections,” he added.

And while Yost explained his office is still working through cases and waiting to see whether county prosecutors plan to take up charges, he repeatedly stressed that the number of actual charges is extremely low.

“I think this should enable everybody to take a deep breath and be more confident that our elections are, in fact, safe and secure, and the noncitizens are not going to vote,” Yost insisted. “And if they are — if that would happen — the few that slip through the cracks will be held accountable.”

Why now?

On the other hand, with an election just two weeks away in which one presidential campaign regularly amplifies baseless claims of voter fraud, Yost’s timing is complicated. Will his charges reassure skeptics or encourage further conspiracy theories? For his part, Yost argued his office is just pursuing an investigation as obligated.

“I got these referrals in August, and here we are in mid-October, and we have indictments,” Yost said. “I will refer you to the Secretary of State on his choice of timing, but we acted with all appropriate speed.”

David Becker with the Center for Election Innovation and Research was quick to insist anyone who violated the law should be held fully accountable — up to and including deportation. “That is why we see this so rarely,” he said, “The penalties far exceed the reward.”

But while he argued the prosecutors should pursue charges “diligently” they should also do so “in close proximity to the crime.” Becker previously served as a senior trial attorney in the voting section at U.S. Department of Justice, and he explained the agency had strict rules against bringing cases close to an election because of potential interference in the voting process.

“Why wouldn’t they wait until after the election to hold a press conference to announce an indictment?” he wondered aloud.

“The Federal Department of Justice would never do this,” he said, “and I can’t imagine a good reason for a state law enforcement agency to announce indictments for illegal voting that may have occurred as much as 10 years ago, two weeks before a major presidential election.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

County election officials around Ohio are seeing scores if not hundreds of voter registration challenges on the eve of the 2024 election. Cleveland.com recently detailed the extent of the effort, led in large part by an organization that grew out of efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, The Akron Beacon Journal reported on a parallel effort to challenge Ohio’s voter rolls in federal court — this time led by a different organization committed to finding widespread alleged voter fraud. Ohio’s Republican Attorney General and Secretary of State have dismissed those claims as “palpably baseless” and urged the court to dismiss the case. Similar lawsuits have been filed in at least six other states.

With this flood of registration challenges, voting rights groups have sprung into action. In a Thursday letter to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the ACLU, Brennan Center, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters argued voters are being improperly removed after the federally mandated 90-day cut off and notice-and-waiting period provisions.

Also this week, the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center sent letters to election officials in 11 states to offer guidance on what is and is not legal when it comes to these mass registration challenges.

Butler County

One of the biggest targets for registration challenges has been Butler County. Board of elections director Nicole Unzicker and deputy director Eric Corbin explain they’ve received close to 1,900 challenges in the current cycle.

“The records that we hold right now show that the last challenge that was submitted was in 2015,” Unzicker said.

For comparison, Ohio’s largest county, Franklin, has seen 1,193 since this year’s primary election. Spokesman Aaron Sellers notes challenges, especially in a presidential year, are normal, but the current figure is higher than they’ve seen in past cycles.

Some of the challenges in Butler County are trivial. On Sept. 4, for instance, the board had to deal with 15 voters who had two spaces in their name instead of one. The board voted to delete the extra space. But another chunk of challenges argued voters in Butler County should be removed because they’re allegedly registered elsewhere. Corbin explained the board took no action, because legally, they can’t.

“The board of elections, because of federal law, does not have the authority to cancel a voter’s registration in that situation, or force them to vote a provisional ballot just because they’ve received one of these (National change of address) changes.”

Unzicker noted some residents are snowbirds and shift their mail elsewhere part of the year. They’ve also seen examples of an entire household getting flagged because one of the kids changed their address when they left for college.

Although that meeting’s challenges went nowhere, Unzicker explained there’s still a cost. Under state law, they have to investigate when a challenge is filed, and they’ve seen a lot of challenges.

“There’s always room for improvement,” she said, “but to have these challenges has definitely been a — I think we’ve had an additional 10 meetings for our board to process these voter challenges.”

The broader trend

In their letter, the voting rights groups zero in on actions by the Delaware, Muskingum and Logan County boards of elections. Unlike what happened in Butler County, in each case of those cases board members sustained allegations of voters who had moved away and registered elsewhere. In removing those voters, the groups argued, the boards violated Section 8(d) of the National Voter Registration Act.

That provision prohibits the removal of a voter from the rolls based on change of residence unless the voter explicitly asks to be removed, or they fail to respond to a notice and then fail to vote in the next two federal general elections. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same provision that drives Ohio’s “supplemental process” that opponents often refer to as a voter purge.

Because the counties removed voters without waiting the required four years, they contend, the counties violated federal law.

“As made clear in recent guidance from the United States Department of Justice, absent written confirmation from the voter themselves, removal based on change of residence must follow the (notice-and-waiting) provisions of Section 8(d),” they wrote.

They add that by taking on the challenges the counties are likely violating Section 8(c) as well, which establishes a 90-day cut off for any program to “systematically” remove voters from the rolls.

“The challenges that are being processed in Delaware County — and potentially other Ohio counties — have all the hallmarks of systematic challenges,” they argued.

They note, rather than offering “individualized or personalized knowledge,” the challengers shared data they gathered from third parties based on “mostly non-governmental sources” and in some cases the challengers themselves didn’t even show up for the hearing.

In Delaware County the board deadlocked on challenges based on third party databases, but that doesn’t mean the voters are in the clear. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose casts the tie breaking vote, and the groups note they’re unsure if he’s taken steps to resolve the issue. ACLU of Ohio legal director Freda Levenson warned him not to disenfranchise those voters and to ensure any improper removals are restored.

“As Ohio’s chief election officer, Secretary LaRose must ensure compliance with the National Voter Registration Act,” she said. “It is his duty and responsibility to be fully acquainted with federal election law, and we urge him to refrain from unlawful removals, and correct all violations in an expedient manner.”

The source

Aaron Ockerman, who serves as executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, explained the current surge in challenges comes in large part from the Ohio Election Integrity Network.

Ohio Capital Journal reached out to OEIN for this story without response. The organization is the state chapter of a group founded by Cleta Mitchell. Following the 2020 election, Mitchell was deeply involved in efforts to overturn the results in Georgia, and more recently she’s been amplifying fears of noncitizen voting in the 2024 election.

Ockerman said election officials understand the need for accurate voter rolls and respect the process for challenging discrepancies. “No one wants to hear a bureaucrat bellyache about how they have to do their jobs,” he joked, “and this is part of our jobs, right?”

Still, he said activists are testing the limits of an ad hoc, small-scale system.

“Our understanding of the statute really is that it was meant to be utilized more like by individuals who have personal knowledge,” Ockerman described. “Maybe of, their neighbor moved or something and they’re still on the voter rolls, or their neighbor died and they’re still on the voter rolls, or something like that.”

Kelly Dufour from Common Cause Ohio has been tracking registration challenges around Ohio and her tally is up to 17 counties.

“The challengers who are bringing the challenges are doing so in a very concerted way with an agenda,” she argued. “They are not individuals who just became interested in data one day and decided they would sit down and be helpful to the board of elections,”

Dufour argued the problem is magnified by LaRose’s silence on the issue. Without guidance from the state level, counties with varying resources are left to navigate a process some haven’t dealt with in years. And while any notice filed with the board triggers a complicated process, that doesn’t mean the underlying allegation has any merit.

“In some cases, challengers actually submitted forms for challenged voters that weren’t even on record in the county,” she said.

Still Dufour worries even baseless claims could undermine the process and confidence in the results.

“At a time when all political parties should be focused on registering voters to participate,” she said, “some are instead deliberately trying to just sow distrust and don’t seem to care if they disenfranchise voters while they’re doing it.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance faced off Tuesday in their first and only vice presidential debate.

But both brought up claims that were nothing new.

Here’s a look at some of those claims and States Newsroom’s assessment of the facts:

CLAIM: Walz said Vance called his running mate, former President Donald Trump, unfit for the office of the presidency.

THE FACTS: True. Vance said it in a New York Times op-ed in 2016. The Washington Post reported that as recently as 2020 Vance criticized the Trump administration’s record, saying Trump “thoroughly failed to deliver.”

Nevertheless, from the earliest stages of his U.S. Senate campaign in 2022, Vance described and defended his change of heart. At a campaign event in January that year, he said, “I’m not gonna hide from the fact that I did not see Trump’s promise in the beginning but you know, he delivered,” Vance said. “He delivered, and he cared about people. And I think that’s important. It’s important (to) change your mind.”

___

CLAIM: Vance argued schools, hospitals and housing in Springfield, Ohio, are overwhelmed or unaffordable “because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants.” He added American citizens in Springfield have “had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’s open border.”

THE FACTS: Vance and Trump have been the driving force behind several smears of the Haitian community in Springfield. Although the population influx has strained resources, state and local officials – some of them Republicans – have rejected Vance’s false characterization of the Haitian people living there.

Those migrants are primarily in the country legally under a program called Temporary Protected Status. It offers work authorization for people who would face danger in their home countries, and has been in place since 1990.

___

CLAIM: In response to moderator Norah O’Donnell asking about Donald Trump’s claim that Walz supports abortions “in the ninth month,” Walz said “In Minnesota, what we did was restore Roe v. Wade.”

THE FACTS: Minnesota Democrats, with Walz’s support, passed a bill in 2023 enshrining Minnesota’s existing abortion protections into law after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right the year before. Abortion had already been protected under a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing women the right to an abortion.

The 2023 bill modified some language governing care requirements for infants “born alive” following an abortion procedure, but the law still states that any such infants “shall be fully recognized as a human person.” Abortions during the third trimester typically only happen in the case of severe fetal abnormalities or threats to the health of the mother.

There is no gestational limit on abortions under Minnesota law, but data from the state Department of Health shows that only one or two abortions per year happen at any point in the third trimester. More than 90% of abortions in the state happen during the first trimester.

___

CLAIM: Vance argued he and Trump would pursue “pro-family” policies and make fertility treatment more accessible. He also stated he never favored a national abortion ban, but rather described his position as “setting some minimum national standard.”

THE FACTS: Vance has repeatedly insisted he supports access to in vitro fertilization treatment, but he voted against a Senate measure to establish protections for it in June and skipped the vote when it came up again in September.

Vance’s framing of his position – minimum standards versus a ban – is little more than semantics. During his 2022 Senate campaign, he expressed support for a bill cutting off access to abortion anywhere in the country after 15 weeks.

“You can have some minimum national standards, which is my view,” he said, “while allowing the states to make up their minds. California is going to have a different view than Ohio, that’s totally fine.”

Under that proposal states would be able to set abortion policies more restrictive than that 15-week cut off.

Vance was unwilling in that 2022 campaign to embrace the typical exceptions of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

“An incest exception looks different at three weeks of pregnancy versus 39 weeks of pregnancy,” he said.

___

CLAIM: On paid family leave, Walz said “We implemented it in Minnesota and we see growth.”

THE FACTS: In 2023, Walz signed Minnesota’s family and medical leave bill into law. The bill creates a state-run insurance program guaranteeing up to 20 weeks paid time off per year to deal with family or medical issues. The program is funded, in part, by a new tax on employers and employees.

However the law will not take force until 2026, and certain details — including the final payroll rate — are still being ironed out by state regulators. The effect on Minnesota’s economy remains unknown, although many studies have shown that paid leave requirements in other states and countries increase womens’ workforce participation and boost economic growth.

___

CLAIM: Vance claimed illegal immigration is driving up the cost of housing and alluded to a Federal Reserve study that drew a link between the two.

THE FACTS: Vance posed the idea to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell himself in July. Powell expressed skepticism at the time, noting in the long run, immigration likely has a neutral impact on inflation, but he acknowledged there may be regional impacts on housing. A pair of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas studies released that month bolster Powell’s argument. One suggested immigrants boosted the U.S. economy without contributing to inflation; the other noted immigrants “could put upward pressure on rents and house prices, particularly in the short run before new supply can be built.”

There doesn’t appear to be a Federal Reserve study drawing a bright line between immigration in housing prices. If anything, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers argued last May that the relationship between those variables is the opposite of what Vance suggested.

Housing experts have consistently said that an ongoing shortage in housing supply has driven up costs.

___

CLAIM: Walz was asked to explain the discrepancy between his account of being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and recent reporting showing he wasn’t there until months later.

THE FACTS: Walz acknowledged he was wrong: “I have not been perfect, and I have been a knucklehead at times…. All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this. That is what I have said. So, I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, went in and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”

Two Ohioans and the state Democratic party are challenging a newly devised policy for returning absentee ballots. They argue Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s directive requiring people to fill out an attestation when returning someone else’s ballot amounts to making “new requirements and voting restrictions out of whole cloth.”

At the end of July, a federal judge ruled that Ohio’s narrow list of family members legally allowed to return an absentee ballot on behalf of a relative would have to go — at least for disabled voters. Federal law guarantees people with disabilities can get help from anyone they want as long as it’s not their employer or union rep.

The court ruled disabled Ohioans, and only disabled Ohioans, must be allowed to select an assistant of their choice.

Despite that narrow ruling, LaRose urged state lawmakers to think about getting rid of drop boxes altogether.

“I strongly encourage you to consider codifying any additional safeguards that might be necessary due to attempts to erode the integrity of our elections,” he wrote in an Aug. 29 letter, “including possibly banning drop boxes as a result of this court decision which makes it harder to guard against ballot harvesting.”

In the meantime, he issued a directive requiring anyone returning a ballot for someone else to — whether they’re assisting a disabled voter or a family member — sign an attestation verifying that they are complying with state law. That directive is what is now being challenged.

How we got here

The underlying federal case was filed by The League of Women Voters of Ohio and Jennifer Kucera, a disability rights advocate living with muscular dystrophy. League executive director Jen Miller declined to weigh in on the legal arguments laid out in the latest case, but she was unequivocal about the LaRose directive it’s challenging.

“This change is extreme and unnecessary,” Miller said, “and will harm voters of all political stripes in all 88 counties, while making elections harder to administrate for our hardworking elections officials.”

She explained their case sought “a narrow ruling,” and she emphasized when they won that ruling, it didn’t necessitate Ohio officials taking additional steps. They just couldn’t charge “grandkids, roommates and other common-sense helpers” with a felony.

“Our win actually just made Ohio compliant with national voting laws,” she said. “It should not be used as an excuse to place greater burdens on voters or elections officials.”

With the directive coming out just a few months before an election, Miller worries many voters won’t know about the changes. She noted their voter education material was already “designed, translated, printed and in the field.” And she contends changes, like drop box signage threatening people with a felony if they deposit any ballot other than their own, are likely to intimidate voters.

“Imagine showing up with your mom’s ballot after the board of elections is closed,” she said. “(You) see this intimidating sign that says you can be charged with a crime or get fined, and then you have to make a decision about whether you rearrange your schedule and come back during office hours.”

For many voters, she argued, making the trip to the county board is a significant undertaking, and requiring some individuals to show up during the hours when the board is open defeats the purpose of a drop box.

The plaintiffs

The latest lawsuit involves two voters and the state democratic party. The party contends it would have to expend additional resources on voter education and turnout because of LaRose’s directive. It argues the requirement will limit access by restricting after-hours drop off and contributing to long lines at county boards of elections, which could deter voters or the people helping to return their ballots.

Another plaintiff, Norman Wernet is planning to return his and his wife’s ballots. After a recent instance of mail theft Wernet wants to use a drop box to ensure their ballots are counted. His wife has early-stage dementia and he’s a senior citizen. “Being forced to park his car, walk up to several blocks, and wait in line to complete an attestation form will be taxing on his time and his health,” the complaint states.

Eric Duffy is blind, and while he has voted in person in the past, he’s had health challenges recently and is planning on voting absentee. Like Wernet, he wants the certainty of the ballot drop box, but the person he trusts to return his ballot “has difficulty walking and standing in line for extended periods of time.” His assistant would have no problem with a drop box but “could not readily return the ballot in person to election officials at the board of elections office.”

The “purpose”

The lawsuit contends LaRose’s directive violates federal law and the state constitution but the most explicit argument deals with state statute.

The section of the Ohio revised code dealing with drop boxes also covers the list of the family members eligible to return a relative’s ballot on their behalf. After listing out 19 different relations, the provision lays out the state’s drop box policy. “Secure receptacles” must be on board of elections property, monitored at all times, and available for drop off 24/7 during the early voting period.

But the complaint zeroed in on a particular phrase in the description — drop boxes are set up “for the purpose of receiving absent voter’s ballots under this section.”

Because the section establishes several explicit provisions, including round the clock availability and the relatives eligible to return ballots, the secretary can’t impose requirements that would curtail voters’ access.

“The Secretary’s issuance of the Directive is thus void,” the complaint contends, “because it violates the Revised Code’s express terms and imposes an extra-legal condition on the return of ballots not imposed by the Ohio General Assembly.”

The Ohio Supreme Court set a timeline Monday for the parties to file briefs. The Secretary’s response is due by noon today, and deadline for the final set of reply briefs is next Monday afternoon.

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

Republican and independent voters are criticizing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno after he referred to women as “a little crazy” for making abortion policy the deciding factor for their vote. In a video obtained by WCMH, Moreno told a crowd in Warren County “(there’s) a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.”

“It’s a little crazy by the way,” he went on, “but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

“I’m 63,” Tammy Krings said, “When I turned 50, I didn’t stop caring about my daughter’s body and her choices and her rights.”

Krings described herself as an independent voter, and she spoke alongside two Republicans Thursday on the sidewalk outside the Columbus Club where Moreno was hosting a fundraiser. The event was organized by Moreno’s opponent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“I didn’t stop caring about my future grandchildren and their rights,” Krings added. “Just because you’re not of childbearing age, and just because you’re not a woman doesn’t mean this isn’t important to you.”

Moreno’s comments in context

In an emailed statement, Moreno campaign spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy said, “Bernie was clearly making a tongue-in-cheek joke about how Sherrod Brown and members of the left-wing media like to pretend that the only issue that matters to women voters is abortion.”

“Bernie’s view,” she continued, “is that women voters care just as much about the economy, rising prices, crime, and our open southern border as male voters do, and it’s disgusting that Democrats and their friends in the left-wing media constantly treat all women as if they’re automatically single-issue voters on abortion.”

Still, Brown’s campaign has latched on to Moreno’s comments. Just days after Ohio voters approved the reproductive rights amendment known as Issue 1 last November, state Democratic officials made it clear they would make politicians’ stance on the issue a central theme of this year’s campaign.

Moreno’s team says he favors exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, but when he ran in 2022, before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe, he described himself as “100% pro-life no exceptions.” He’s also embraced the idea of a national “15-week floor” for abortion, but has been less willing to assert that outside of being an aspiration after former President Donald Trump abandoned the idea in April. Now Moreno argues the matter should be settled “primarily” at the state level. Following a surprise Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened access to IVF treatment, Moreno dismissed concerns as “a left-wing, media-created issue.” And Wednesday, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Moreno claimed the Founding Fathers would “murder you” for supporting abortion rights.

Moreno isn’t the only Republican candidate struggling to thread the needle on an issue where the majority of voters don’t appear to align with their position. But even within his party, Moreno’s comments sparked pushback. Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley asked, “are you trying to lose the election?” on social media Tuesday.

Republicans and Independents weigh in

“Fifty-seven percent of Ohioans voted,” Krings argued, in reference to Issue 1 last November, “and Bernie Moreno wants to just toss that out the window.”

She insisted politicians need to “understand the assignment.” It’s their job, she said, to uphold the will of the voters not second guess it.

“He thinks he knows better,” she said. “We the people — his job is to execute on what the people vote for. It’s really kind of simple.”

Krings is backing Brown because of his record of bringing people together, listening, and striving to represent all of the people in the state, she said. In addition to Krings, Ed Dunn and Lea Maceyko had harsh words for Moreno. They’re both supporting Brown as well.

Dunn is from Beavercreek and described himself as a lifelong Republican. Like Krings he argued that even a policy doesn’t affect him personally, that doesn’t preclude him from caring about it.

“We just want women, including my family, friends and others, now and in the future, to have the right to make their own health care decisions,” he said. “The government or politicians shouldn’t be involved in those extremely personal matters.”

“That’s not crazy,” Dunn added, “that’s just common sense.”

Lea Maceyko is a Republican, too and comes from “a little one-stoplight town called Cardington.” She described herself as an Ohio woman over 50. “I won’t tell you exactly how far over 50 I am,” she added, “but I’m over 50.” Maceyko was a bit shocked that Moreno would not just disregard the results of Issue 1, but that he’d make light of it.

“(He’s) making fun of people for caring about our rights and the rights of others,” she said. “And frankly, I just don’t think that’s very funny.”

“I have grandchildren, nieces, friends and other women in my life that I love and care about, and I don’t think it’s very crazy that I care about their rights.” Maceyko added. “Bernie said I was crazy, but really, I think he’s a little crazy to be mocking people that he wants to represent.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

In less than two months, voters in Ohio and around the country head to the polls. If everything goes smoothly — and there’s no guarantee it will — we might know who won the races for president, Congress and more later that evening. What happens next is where we ran into trouble in 2020, and it’s what a 2022 law known as The Electoral Count Reform Act aims to clarify.

Following the 2020 election, former President Trump refused to accept his defeat. He filed scores of lawsuits that went nowhere, and badgered state officials in Georgia to find him votes. Ambiguities in prior law gave Trump allies just enough room to believe they could overturn the election at the certification ceremony on January 6.

The Electoral Count Reform Act establishes concrete deadlines for state level certification between the election and the joint session in Congress. It also raises the threshold for challenging electors and clarifies that the Vice President’s role as presiding officer is a purely ministerial one — the vice president can not unilaterally reject electoral votes and certification.

Summing it up, Holly Idelson from Protect Democracy said, “I think the ECRA bumper sticker could have been make January boring again.”

The timeline in Ohio and under the ECRA

Election Day this year is Nov. 5, but Ohioans who want to vote early or absentee can begin doing so Oct. 8. Absentee ballots for overseas voters have already gone out. Voters who choose to cast a ballot absentee will need to get it postmarked by Nov. 4 at the latest, and the postal service must deliver it by Nov. 9 to count.

Following Election Day comes the canvass where local election officials make their final tally with party representatives and supporters or opponents of ballot issues looking on. Under Ohio law, that can’t begin until five days after the election (Nov. 10) but must begin within 15 days (Nov. 20). County boards must have their official canvass completed by Nov. 26.

Following the canvass, Ohio officials issue what’s known as a certificate of ascertainment. It’s essentially a document laying out the official vote totals and slates of electors for each presidential candidate. It’s signed by the governor and the secretary of state and submitted to the national archivist.

Under the ECRA, that certificate must be issued by Dec. 11, and any litigation stemming from a dispute must be wrapped up by Dec. 16. In each state the electors meet at their state capitols cast their official votes the next day, Dec. 17.

About three weeks later on Jan. 6, the vice president, presiding over a joint session of Congress, receives and tallies those Electoral College votes.

The ECRA’s changes

Before the ECRA, the certification of presidential election results was governed by the Electoral Count Act. That law, passed in 1887, was meant to address another Electoral College crisis that came out of the 1876 election. But Campaign Legal Center executive director Adav Noti explained some provisions were loose enough to allow Trump allies try upending the 2020 election’s results at the state and federal level.

“One was trying to get state legislatures to overrule the popular results in their states,” he explained. “And the other was trying to get Congress and/or the Vice President to basically throw out electoral votes when they were counted in January of 2021.”

Part of defusing those strategies, Idelson explained, is just being more explicit about timing and responsibilities. The ECRA makes it clear the time for deciding electors is Election Day, not through state legislative action after the fact.

“And this language replaces something that was intended to do the same thing,” she said, “but because it was written in a somewhat vague way and talked about a failed election, was misperceived or misrepresented, to potentially open the door to saying, hey, we didn’t like the way the election went, it was fraudulent, we can do something different.”

The ECRA also places explicit authority for submitting them in the hands of the governor, unless the state had previously put it in the hands of another official. Under previous law, the authority for appointing electors was more diffuse allowing for state legislatures to assert a role in settling disputes. Following the 2000 election, the U.S. Supreme Court even determined the legislature “ may, if it so chooses, select the electors itself.”

If a dispute arises, the ECRA requires expedited court proceedings to review the case at the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., with an eye toward settling disagreements before the Electoral College meets.

Michael Thorning from the Bipartisan Policy Center argued that’s important, because there are complications in elections from time to time even if people are acting in good faith. In 1960, for instance, Hawaii’s governor submitted a slate of electors for Richard Nixon only to find after a recount that John F. Kennedy had actually won the state. At the time, some members of Congress weren’t sure which slate to accept, and partisans have cited the incident in election disputes for the 2000 and 2020 presidential election.

“There’s a way to resolve that in a definitive way before the certificate gets to Congress,” Thorning said. “Because what the law says is that if you go through this court process, and the court rules, as they may have in the Hawaii case, that one set of electors is not the correct set, it’s this other one, you’ll have a definitive answer.”

“So had we had the ECRA maybe in 1960 versus the old version of the law, that ambiguity might never have come up,” he added.

Once lawmakers are meeting in the Jan. 6 joint session to tabulate the votes, the ECRA sets a higher threshold for challenging electors. Under previous law, objections needed only one U.S. Representative and one U.S. Senator. Now, a challenge will require one fifth of both chambers.

“And the one other adjustment that ECRA made,” Idelson added, is that if an objection is made and then sustained by a vote in both chambers, “then that number is subtracted from the denominator when it comes time to calculate if someone has won a majority of the electoral votes.”

Thorning explained that undercuts a tactic partisans tried in 2020. Throwing out some electors while keeping the overall number steady could keep either candidate from reaching a majority, thus putting the decision in the hands of the U.S. House of Representatives where the GOP held an advantage.

“So, the ECRA really shut down the avenues of attempted overturning of the election from 2020,” Noti described. “State legislatures aren’t an option anymore. Congress isn’t really an option anymore.”

But he acknowledged in states like Georgia, some officials are looking for ways to gum up the works for certification at the local level. The state elections board there has approved rules allowing counties to delay certification while investigating purported discrepancies as well as requiring a hand count of ballots at polling places.

The state’s Republican attorney general has warned the board it is likely exceeding its authority, and Noti doesn’t believe their efforts will go anywhere either. He noted Georgia’s Secretary of State has already publicly insisted on counties meeting the state certification deadline which falls well before the federal one.

“And there’s an opportunity to get a court order if somehow (counties don’t certify),” Noti said. “So quite a few safeguards built into the system in case there is an effort to slow things down at the at the county level.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

Resources are flowing into Springfield, Ohio, after weeks of negative attention fueled by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and right-wing social media influencers.

Ohio state troopers are posted at schools, state health officials are opening clinics to assist over-stretched local providers, and civic organizations are raising money.

Springfield’s Haitian community, the subject of repeated smears, is exhausted and ready for the country’s attention to move somewhere else. But while they’re frustrated, they say they see the furor for what it is — manufactured, fanciful, political.

Community reaction

At the Haitian restaurant Rose Goute Creole, the line was long and the tables were packed. Many of the customers had made the trip from outlying cities like Columbus, looking to show support for the community in whatever small way they could.

Over a plate of spaghetti with chicken and hard-boiled eggs, Daniel Geffrard spoke with pride about his heritage.

“We know who we are. Haiti is the first Black republic. It is the second independent country (in the Americas) after USA,” he said. “We know that we are a great people, and the world knows who we are.”

Geffrard has been living in Springfield for three years. He works with Amazon and drives for Lyft as well. Geffrard stressed that he and others like him aren’t there to be a burden — they just want to work.

“We know,” he said again, jamming a finger into his chest for emphasis, “We know who we are, and we know why they say what they say.”

A couple miles away on the north side of town Philomene Philostin runs Creations Market. The shelves are packed with big sacks of rice and beans, dried jute leaves called lalo and bottled fruit juice or malt drinks.

“I heard a lot of people said they’re gonna leave,” she said.

Philostin described one customer whose husband has been living in the city since 2017.

“She have all those memories,” Philostin said, but their place in town suddenly feels tenuous.

“She have kids in school here, she have a newborn gonna be coming soon, and she want to leave Springfield,” she said.

If people feel threatened or endangered enough to want to leave, Philostin said she can’t blame them.

But she was clear-eyed about the purpose of the rhetoric and argued it will disappear once the election has passed. Donald Trump recently floated the idea of holding a rally in Springfield — Philostin said go ahead.

“He’s a former president,” she said, “He have right to come in whatever he want to come, whatever state he want to visit, because he have his people here. Who knows, I may be his people, too.”

Rinaldi Dessalines speaks four languages and works in Springfield as a translator.

“It’s because I’ve been in different places,” he explained.

Growing up in Haiti, he spoke French and Haitian Creole. He picked up Spanish after living in the Dominican Republic, and English here in the United States.

He said life was pretty nice in Springfield before it became the subject of baseless rumors.

“Everything was okay for me,” he said. “I can say my experience was amazing.”

But since then, “it’s like an earthquake, not only for the Haitian community, it’s for everybody.”

The experience has been rattling, and now residents are second-guessing the world around them as if questioning the ground beneath their feet. Dessalines said he’s frustrated at having his culture tarred for political gain.

“When you attack a culture of someone, it’s normal you’re gonna feel this kind of thing, you know, frustration when someone accused of something that you don’t do in your culture,” he said. “It’s not only about Haitian. It’s about everybody.”

Dessalines hasn’t been personally targeted, but he’s spoken to others who feel scared. He described how being forced into the national spotlight is strange and a bit eerie. Between bomb threats and reporters crawling all over the place, there’s a kind of nebulous threat hanging in the air.

“So when, in the atmosphere, even (if) the person doesn’t feel attacked or striked or targeted, it’s like this is a sign something not good is going on in your environment,” he said.

State support

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has forcefully rejected former President Trump and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s false assertions about Haitian migrants eating domestic animals. He has dismissed the claims as “garbage,” and in a New York Times op-ed he insisted that rhetoric “hurts the city and its people.”

At the same time, DeWine finds himself walking a familiar tightrope — for all his frustration with what the former president says, he’s been reticent to make a break with the candidate himself.

Even as he criticized Trump and Vance’s repeated, baseless claims, DeWine’s op-ed reiterated his support for the GOP presidential ticket. He argued frustration with the Biden administration’s immigration policy is justified, but that anger is misplaced when it’s directed at the Haitian community.

While the governor attempts to thread the needle politically, he’s been far more direct when it comes to support.

Following more than 30 bomb threats that shuttered schools, hospitals and city hall, the governor dispatched the Ohio Highway Patrol. DeWine said they’d be present and visible for as long as necessary. Friday, a trooper was posted in the shade out front of Perrin Woods Elementary on Springfield’s south side.

As claims about eating pets have been debunked, Vance has reached for other negative impacts including rising rates of HIV and tuberculosis.

According to the Clark County Health Department, cases have gone up — but the numbers aren’t dramatic. In 2018, there were 10 new HIV diagnoses, in 2022, there were 13. Clark County has more recent data for tuberculosis. Between 2013 and 2019, the county reported one case or none each year. In 2023, there were four cases.

Still, the local health system is struggling to manage an increasing population, and to help meet those needs, state and county officials are setting up a mobile clinic this week.

In a press release, DeWine explained, “Our goal is to reduce wait times and to be able to provide the necessary health care services for everyone – whether you’ve lived in this community your whole life or you’ve just come into the community recently.”

The plan is to eventually transition that mobile clinic to a permanent site, but the location and timeline for that effort is still up in the air. According to the governor, the clinic will deliver primary care, vaccinations, lab testing and maternal and infant health services. DeWine’s administration has also committed to direct $2.5 million to expand access to primary healthcare in the city.

State Rep. Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, pinned the blame for stretched local resources on the Biden administration.

“There was no communication from the federal government that they were going to start sending migrants to Springfield and there also has been no support,” he said in a statement. “Springfield has been left on its own to figure out these problems.”

The federal government has not “sent” migrants to Springfield. By and large, the Haitian people living in Springfield have what’s known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The program gives people whose home country is facing armed conflict or a natural disaster the right to remain in the U.S. and work temporarily. With that status they are free to find a home in the country where they like.

Willis added the greatest challenge presented by the arrival of Haitian residents is the language barrier.

“This is creating challenges for educators, law enforcement, health care professionals, and other service providers,” he said. “Translators are needed at public service departments and these additional costs are straining already stretched resources.”

The DeWine administration is working with federal officials to secure additional support. A spokesman noted part of the problem is federal resources follow people with different immigration statuses, like refugees, but not those on TPS.

Meanwhile the United Way of Clark, Champaign and Madison Counties has set up a fund for people who want to support the community.

“The Springfield Unity Fund will allow people across the nation to quickly and effectively provide targeted support to our Haitian families as we work together to ensure our neighbors feel welcomed, supported, and empowered to thrive,” executive director Kerry Lee Pedraza said.

The organization is putting donations toward services like early childhood education, English courses and driving instruction as well as employment and health care assistance.

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

On the debate stage Tuesday, former president Donald Trump reiterated the widely debunked claim that he won the 2020 election. Less than two months from election day, state officials in Ohio and Republican leaders in Congress appear to be laying the groundwork for future claims of fraud if Trump loses in November, an election watchdog is warning.

With a federal funding deadline looming, House Speaker Mike Johnson wanted to tie the SAVE Act to government funding legislation. The measure, which passed the House already this year, would require voters across the country to show proof of citizenship before registering to vote.

Although it’s already illegal to register or vote when you aren’t eligible, under current law a voter only has to attest to being a citizen. Requiring documentary proof of citizenship is a lot more complicated than it might seem. Go-to documents like a driver’s license or a Social Security card wouldn’t cut it. Even a birth certificate would be insufficient without a photo ID showing a matching name, which is a potential complication for those who changed their name after marriage.

A University of Maryland study estimates more than 21 million Americans don’t have ready access to the documents they’d need.

And the catch is even if Speaker Johnson could find the votes he did previously for the SAVE Act, and force the hand of the U.S. Senate where the measure was dead on arrival, its passage would have no impact on November’s election.

That led even a SAVE Act co-sponsor to revolt. On social media, Trump urged lawmakers to shut down the government unless they get “absolute assurances” of election security before voting on a funding measure. He then alleged, without evidence, that Democrats are attempting to register undocumented people.

David Becker, from the Center for Election Innovation and Research, made the point that it’s too late for the SAVE Act’s provisions to affect the upcoming election.

“I think there’s an important question to ask, and that question is, why now?” he said. “Why are you raising this now, even if we take what you say as truth, and in most cases, it isn’t, why didn’t you do something about this before?”

He noted Republicans have controlled the U.S. House since the beginning of 2023 (the SAVE Act vote was about two months ago) and Trump was in the White House for four years.

“This is about politics,” he added, “and more importantly, it’s about fueling perceived claims of an election being stolen in anticipation of what they may believe is going to be a defeat for their preferred candidate.”

Wednesday afternoon, Speaker Johnson announced he would delay the vote on a funding bill while he works to shore up support.

What’s happening in Ohio

A bit closer to home, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is working in the same vein. He’s recently urged state lawmakers to impose similar proof-of-citizenship requirements at the state level following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing an Arizona law to remain in place. And Wednesday he called on Congress to support his efforts to find alleged noncitizens on the voter rolls.

Earlier this week he referred old cases to the Attorney General. Since taking office, LaRose stated in a press release, his office has sent more than 600 incidents of alleged election fraud to law enforcement.

An Ohio Capital Journal investigation showed almost none of those allegations have resulted in charges, and LaRose’s release acknowledges that track record. But instead of seeing shortcomings on his end, LaRose placed the blame on county prosecutors.

“Unfortunately, many of these referrals have not been pursued by law enforcement, sometimes by choice and other times due to limited prosecutorial capacity,” he said.

LaRose noted the Attorney General can step in when a prosecutor doesn’t act “within a reasonable time,” and insisted “the only way to maintain Ohio’s high standard of election integrity is to enforce the law whenever it’s broken.” Hun Yi, who leads investigations for LaRose’s public integrity division, argued prosecutors have had their chance.

“We respect prosecutorial discretion,” he wrote in a letter to Attorney General Dave Yost, “and we don’t necessarily expect all 633 referrals to lead to criminal charges, but only 12 out of 633 shows a second set of eyes might be needed here to determine whether prosecution of these crimes is justified.”

The referral of warmed-over cases comes on the heels of two other noncitizen audits in which LaRose wound up flagging recently naturalized citizens. Some of them argue LaRose’s audit took a shortcut — lumping them in even though they hadn’t made a legally required assertion of noncitizenship to the BMV.

Becker argued that heightened scrutiny is simply not warranted.

“Disenfranchising citizens is wrong,” he said. “It’s particularly troubling to disenfranchise citizens who become naturalized and as their first act as a naturalized citizen registered to vote.”

“So, until they bring any evidence,” he added, “I think we don’t have anything to discuss here. Because this is not a problem.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

Since initially flagging hundreds of alleged noncitizens on Ohio’s voter rolls, Secretary of State Frank LaRose has begun sending letter to those who are, in fact, citizens. The letter congratulates them “on being an active participant in our democracy!” and encourages them to make sure their records are up to date.

And to two recently naturalized citizens caught in the audit, that’s all fine. It’s where the letter goes next that frustrates them.

The letter states, “Ohio law requires the use of a current driver’s license or state issue photo ID for the purpose of voter identification.” And while those forms of ID certainly are valid, they aren’t the only options available to voters. Other options include an interim ID form issued by the Ohio BMV, a U.S. passport, a U.S. passport card, a U.S. military ID card, an Ohio National Guard ID card; or a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card.

After being dragged through a verification process they see as unnecessary and legally dubious, they say the letter’s oversight looks a lot bigger. And in light of Republican-led efforts in other states that swept up citizens in attempts to remove alleged noncitizens, they’re even more skeptical of officials’ motives.

Meanwhile, to LaRose, those cases don’t seem to merit a second thought. Rather than false positives encouraging a more cautious approach, LaRose has doubled down. After the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, the secretary has urged Ohio lawmakers to pass similar restrictions here.

“We now have the opportunity to require front-end citizenship verification prior to a registration being processed,” LaRose said in a press release. “This would be a great step forward for future elections, and I’m asking the Ohio General Assembly to pass legislation further protecting the integrity of Ohio’s elections.”

When it’s been tried before, that “great step” wound up disenfranchising more than 30,000 eligible voters. A recent survey noted 1 in 10 Americans — more than 21 million — don’t have ready access to the documents necessary to prove their citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate.

The Ohio Capital Journal requested an interview or statement from LaRose for this story as it did for two earlier ones regarding naturalized citizens flagged amid his noncitizen audits. The Capital Journal sought comment from LaRose as well for a series last year tracking his claims of alleged voter fraud more generally. His office has yet to respond.

How we got here

Nicholas Ross and Andrew Pearson both recently became naturalized citizens after living in the U.S. for more than 20 years. Ross is a pianist who chairs the Music Department at Otterbein University. Pearson teaches high school social studies in Cincinnati. They’re both British by birth and speak English as their first language. Each expressed concerns about how new citizens who aren’t native speakers would navigate the process.

As part of the naturalization ceremony, they both registered to vote. But a few months ago, they received letters challenging that registration. They’d both previously gotten a driver’s license, and since they hadn’t been in to the state BMV since naturalization, according to those records they weren’t citizens.

The problem is that the secretary of state relies on BMV records when checking citizenship.

“The way they are trying to double check if non-U.S. citizens are voting, is based upon the idea that the driver’s license they see will exactly reflect your current citizenship,” Ross said. “And yet we know it doesn’t.”

What’s more, he added, there’s no current law requiring new citizens to update their information at the BMV.

All the same, Ross quickly returned his letter requesting proof of citizenship, but Pearson never did. Both received the follow up letter congratulating them and warning them about the state’s photo ID requirements for voting.

So what’s the big deal?

Ross argued the letter’s framing of Ohio law as requiring “a state issue photo ID” is incomplete and misleading. He noted the letter itself includes a link that makes it clear Ohio voters have a handful of other options.

“So, in other words, that’s not true,” Ross said of the secretary’s letter.

One of the other acceptable forms of ID is a U.S. Passport, which Ross had always planned on using to vote anyway.

Pearson, meanwhile, saw the letter as confirmation the secretary’s initial challenge was “performative,” or “smoke and mirrors.” If he never gave the secretary his citizenship information, but the office confirmed his status anyway, why send the letter in the first place?

“They didn’t really need to go through that whole process of sending letters out to people, threatening (them) with felony charges,” he said, “All of those steps that they took were kind of redundant.”

As for the ID requirements, Pearson zeroed in on a different problem.

Starting last year, the BMV began printing “noncitizen” on driver’s licenses and ID cards for people who are in the country legally but are not yet citizens. While the secretary doesn’t explicitly state that a non-citizen ID is invalid for voting, he warns “you must avoid” using one and that “you could be required to vote provisionally.”

But what if you got your license before Ohio started including that notation and it’s still current? Pearson noted that’s the boat he and his father found themselves in, and his dad read the letter as requiring him to get to the BMV to update his license if he wanted to vote. Pearson argued that was an unnecessary inconvenience.

And even for those voters who do have the noncitizen marking on their license, he questions whether that by itself should be an obstacle.

Practically speaking, if a poll worker saw a noncitizen marking on a voter’s identification card it could be grounds for challenging their right to vote. The problem is that nothing in state law, the administrative code or the secretary’s directive implementing Ohio’s photo voter ID law actually prohibits the use of noncitizen ID to vote. The only requirement is that a person’s ID be current.

It’s an important distinction, because a driver’s license or ID is valid for four or eight years. That means anyone who got a license that includes the marking, and has since naturalized, is holding a card that will be valid through at least 2027. The BMV will give you a new version for free, but again, Pearson argued the voter shouldn’t have to fix a problem state lawmakers created. For comparison, he brought up the paper card the BMV sends out after you update your address.

“They could totally do that with citizenship,” he said. He added that if the Secretary can send him a letter confirming his citizenship, the BMV should be able to send along that free updated ID card.

And either way, Pearson said, if the secretary has just done all this work to clean up the voter rolls, then it shouldn’t matter if your license says noncitizen or not.

“If they are in fact doing their job, which they claim they are, because he says he’s very serious about removing noncitizens — as he should be — then that list that the polling locations have is valid,” he said. “So as long as the photo ID matches who you are and verifies your identity, shouldn’t we be trusting the voter rolls?”

Unnecessary burdens

Although state law doesn’t explicitly prohibit using a noncitizen license or ID for voting, one of the grounds for challenging a voter’s eligibility at the polls is suspicion that they are not a U.S. citizen. And once that challenge is made, things get murky. The voter has to fill out an affidavit asserting their eligibility and a majority of precinct officials have to agree to let them vote. Otherwise, they have to cast a provisional ballot.

Kayla Griffin from the voting advocacy group All Voting is Local warned, “I’m sure that we’re going to see spikes in our provisional ballot usage.”

She argued that unlike people born citizens, those who naturalize have to run an administrative gauntlet before becoming Americans. Tacking on additional barriers, whether through requiring letters to verify citizenship or additional trips to the BMV, is just a new kind of a poll tax.

“(They’re) saddled with the burden of making sure that they stay on the rolls, making sure that they bring extra information,” she said, “It’s more than what our law requires of them.”

LaRose’s vision for elections in the state would mean far greater complications for all voters — regardless of how they became citizens. The Arizona model recently endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court sets up a two-track system, where state voter registration forms require proof of citizenship while the less commonly used federal form does not.

Voters who qualify to vote with the state form can vote the full ballot, while those who used the federal form are restricted to federal races only. But GOP lawmakers think even that arrangement is not stringent enough. A provision that the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped would’ve blocked those federal-only voters from casting ballots in the presidential race or by mail.

Importantly, documents like a driver’s license or a Social Security card would likely be insufficient to prove citizenship. Under federal proof-of-citizenship legislation which LaRose has endorsed, a passport is the most readily available single document for establishing citizenship. Otherwise, voters would need a photo ID and a document related to their birth, adoption or naturalization.

Despite LaRose’s urging, it’s almost certainly too late for lawmakers to make those changes before this year’s election.

A national pattern

The heightened scrutiny playing out in Ohio doesn’t stop at the state line. Jonathan Diaz who works on voting rights for the Campaign Legal Center explained noncitizen audits have happened in several other Republican led states with similar results.

“The states that are doing this, I think, are just signaling in a political messaging way, that they are taking the issue of noncitizen voting seriously and perhaps more nefariously trying to prime the public to think that there is a serious problem of noncitizen registration and voting in this country that is totally unsupported by any evidence.”

In Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia this year, state officials have touted efforts to remove thousands of alleged noncitizens from the voting rolls. Diaz noted by contrast Ohio’s efforts are relatively tame — LaRose alleges he’s found hundreds while other states say they’ve found thousands.

Part of the reason could be an explicit statutory provision limiting his audit to people who indicated they are not a citizen after having taken some voting action. Ross and Pearson both argue they never took that step, and that LaRose is violating the law by casting too broad a net.

But Diaz cautions that, at this point, “it’s not super clear whether this is a couple of one-off mistakes or whether there is some systematic procedure that Ohio is undertaking that is not following that statutory process.”

Like Ohio, the other states aggressively pursuing alleged noncitizens have wound up catching eligible voters. Diaz added that the CLC has sent letters to leaders in Texas and Alabama warning that if they go forward with removing voters, they risk breaking federal law. Similar warnings in Tennessee led leaders there to send follow up letters to voter assuring them they wouldn’t be removed over failing to respond.

But Diaz argues the rolls themselves aren’t the point.

“I don’t think that the goal of these announcements is actually to remove people from the rolls,” he argued. “I think it is to seed this narrative in the public consciousness about noncitizen voting, regardless of evidence, so that they can point to it in November and December as the reason why the election was quote-unquote stolen.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

The Brennan Center for Justice and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative have been pushing Ohio’s Secretary of State since July to confirm voters aren’t being improperly removed from the rolls after updating their address. Now, they’re preparing to file suit against Sec. Frank LaRose if his office doesn’t respond by the end of the day today, Wednesday.

They argue Ohio’s procedures seem as though they violate federal law, and new state provisions seem to confirm those concerns.

Where statutes disagree

The watchdogs’ concerns center on provisions in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, known colloquially as the Motor Voter law. In addition to requiring state motor vehicle agencies to provide voter registration forms, it sets out guidelines for what happens when a resident updates their address.

Section 5 requires that whenever someone updates their address with the BMV, that change must also serve as notification to update their voter registration. This change is supposed to happen automatically unless the person affirmatively opts out of the process.

“In other words,” the organizations wrote to the Secretary in July, “the NVRA puts the onus on state officials to update the voter’s registration record.”

In the same letter they cite correspondence between the Secretary’s office and state Rep. Elliot Forhan, D-South Euclid, in which LaRose indicated at least some of the individuals getting flagged had moved and updated their driver’s license but failed to update their registration.

The Brennan Center and Ohio Organizing Collaborative argue that’s a fundamental misreading of state agency responsibilities under the Motor Voter law.

“Ohio cannot require registered voters who report a change of address at the BMV to take any additional steps to update their registration, such as filling out additional forms or cancelling the registration at their old address,” their letter insists.

One notable problem, Brennan Center attorney Patrick Berry argued, is Ohio’s DATA Act. The measure was a priority for LaRose early in the current legislative term and it was included as a budget rider last summer. Its primary purpose was to get Ohio’s 88 boards of elections on the same page when it comes to maintaining their voter rolls, but it also carries a provision that could hamper updates under the NVRA.

The statute states registration updates can only happen if a voter files a name or address change, but it also prohibits information obtained from state agencies in the normal course of business from being used to update a voter’s registration address.

Berry worries that presents a conundrum. Is a change of address form getting shared between agencies to keep records up to date as the Motor Voter law requires? Or is it treated as the information collected in the normal course of business that can’t be used to update registrations?

With state law potentially at cross purposes, the organizations warned the Secretary that “removal on the ground that (voters) failed to cancel their registration at their old address would violate the NVRA.”

Additionally, Berry expressed concerns about the BMV change of address form. While it notifies applicants that the information they share will be used for “voter registration purposes,” it’s presented more like a warning than a service. “By signing this form,” it states, “you are consenting to the release of the information provided.”

“We think that that language could be confusing and subject to different interpretations,” Berry argued.

Following that notification, the form includes a box for applicants to opt out of sharing their information, but it also includes a second signature box. In a follow up letter to the Secretary on Monday, the organizations criticized that framing as “facially deceptive” because it seemingly presents the information sharing as something to which a voter must “opt in.”

Are the right people getting flagged?

After an initial review of the voters included in the removal process, Berry noted they found “a handful” who received letters to verify their address well before state officials can actually remove them. That’s not necessarily a problem, but he explained the Motor Voter law established the procedures for removing a voter after they’ve moved.

“Specifically,” he said, “an election official can’t remove a voter based on a change of address unless the voter confirms themselves in writing that they’ve moved, or the voter fails to respond to the notice that’s sent to them and then fails to vote in the next two federal general elections.”

Berry described finding voters in Cuyahoga County scheduled for removal who received confirmation letters in 2021, 2022 or 2024 — too recent to remove them unless the voter responds confirming their move.

After the removals went forward at the end of July, Berry explained one of the voters they identified was removed but the remainder were still on the rolls. The voter who was removed may have returned a confirmation notice, but it’s not clear.

“And we just want to make sure that you know that one voter who was removed was removed properly and in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act,” Berry said.

He noted they also want to know if similarly situated voters are being protected as well.

“As the chief election official,” Berry explained, “Secretary LaRose is required to ensure that the relevant state agencies and election officials, including the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and county boards of elections, are complying with the National Voter Registration Act.”

“And we hope that he responds to our letter by tomorrow, with assurances that they are,” he added. “But if we don’t hear from the Secretary, we won’t hesitate to seek court intervention to protect the rights of Ohio voters.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

On the campaign trail this year, like every year, the economy is top of mind for Ohio voters and candidates.

Republican Ohio U.S. Senate nominee Bernie Moreno regularly talks about how expensive it is to go to McDonalds or the jolt of surprise when you see the grocery bill.

“And you asked the cashier, did you add something by mistake?” Moreno told supporters at an event in Chillicothe this month, “Because there’s no way the groceries that I just bought could possibly be that price.”

“Look at the price of steak, of chicken and pork, right?” he added, “It’s so high, that you look at it and go, you know, maybe we should have cereal for dinner tonight.”

When it comes to economic appeals, he’s preaching to the choir. In Chillicothe, his reference to the cost of meat was met with wide eyes and nodding heads. After campaign events, attendees regularly bring up the cost of groceries or worry about how their kids can start families of their own saddled with higher interest mortgages.

“The real American dream,” Moreno said in February, “is that you can go to a good high school, you can graduate, you can get a good job. You can get married, you can afford a home, you can afford a car. You can afford to have kids. Those kids can go to good schools in safe communities. And then you can retire debt-free and the government is in the background.”

“That’s the American Dream that we’re going to restore,” Moreno insisted. But his financial disclosure depicts a person far removed from the kind of concerns his supporters express.

Despite economic headwinds like higher interest rates, Moreno-connected entities have purchased five homes in the past year. He was also involved in the purchase of a nearly 25-acre parcel of undeveloped land next door to a popular outlet mall in Sunbury, Ohio.

Meanwhile, Moreno was able to loan his campaign $4.5 million — $1.5 million of which came from CF Bank. The campaign’s most recent quarterly report, which covers April to June, indicates he has not begun to repay himself from supporters’ contributions, but the financial disclosure, filed in August, makes no mention of the loan.

Nesting dolls

In 2024, Bernie Moreno reported earning just $15,000 in salary, but if elected, he will likely be among the wealthiest men serving in Congress because of his business holdings. The company Quiver Quantitative tracks politicians’ estimated net worth thanks to disclosure requirements in the STOCK Act. Following that data, four U.S. Senators crack the $100 million mark. According to their estimates, Moreno would be the fifth.

Despite filing a disclosure of he and wife’s finances, though, Moreno’s exact net worth remains murky. The financial disclosure requires candidates and officeholders to list their assets, but the value of those assets is presented as a range — one which grows broader as the value increases.

Tallying together his holdings, Moreno reports assets worth at least $38 million or as much as $172.7 million. His reported liabilities amount to $2.75 million on the low end or $11.5 million on the high end.

Parsing the report is complicated further by the parade of businesses entities stacked like nesting dolls within the family trust. Hyperbole Investments holds stakes in tech companies based in Ohio and Israel. M6 Realty owns a building worth $1-5 million in Middleburg, Ohio that earned between $100,000 and $1 million in rent. M7 Realty’s empty land in Hudson, Ohio earned $15,000 to $50,000 in rent, and M20 Realty shelled out $9.5 million for the Delaware County parcel near the Tangier Outlet Mall.

Ohio GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno takes anti-immigrant, pro-fossil fuel message on tour

In Moreno’s 2023 report, Aguila Calva Properties (that’s bald eagle in Spanish) owned a condo in Washington, D.C. and Kylo Properties owned a home in Avon, Ohio. This year, similarly named entities purchased two new homes. Aguila Calva Properties Ohio bought a $675,000 home in Westlake July 1 this year. Kylo Properties Columbus bought a $1.2 million home north of New Albany in June with a golf simulator in the basement.

Previously, Butterfly Properties reported owning a condo in New York City, but this year, the company reported a different property in Eastchester, New York. The $2.2 million home has an elevator and a walk-in wine cellar with room for more than 1,500 bottles. Similarly, in 2023 Pangolin Properties reported a condo in Columbus, but as of this June, it owns a $612,000 home in Dixon, California.

The most valuable new piece of real estate is a Coconut Grove, Florida condo owned by Live More, LLC valued at $5 to $25 million. That’s in addition to the previously reported and similarly valued home across Biscayne Bay on Key Largo. According to the filing, Moreno owns 43% of that company, and the property generated between $50,000 and $100,000 in rent.

Meanwhile, in 2023 Moreno reported owning an unimproved parcel of land in Zapotal, Costa Rica through a company called Yellowstone. The AP has reported Yellowstone is a private equity firm tied to a construction firm owned by Moreno’s brother. That parcel no longer appears on Moreno’s disclosure, but his Yellowstone holdings have grown substantially. Last year, he reported a stake worth $500,000 to $1 million that generated more than $71,000. In the current report, he claims holdings worth $1 million to $5 million which generated more than $180,000.

Who owns the companies?

Even the complex chains of ownership don’t necessarily tell the whole story. According to Moreno’s disclosure, for many of these entities he and his wife own just 1% of the business entity. Still, Moreno lists himself as “manager” for the entities in a separate portion of his disclosure.

Despite listing himself as holding just a 1% stake in Live More, LLC, which purchased the $5 million plus condo in Coconut Grove, according to Florida business records, Live More has been incorporated in Florida since 2017. Bernie Moreno is listed as its manager and registered agent. The principal address for the company is the family’s home in Key Largo.

Moreno did not respond to series of questions about why he has structured his holdings in this way and who holds the other 98% of the companies. Generally speaking, the Ohio business filings aren’t much help, but the initial filing for Pangolin Properties lists his son, Adam Moreno. Aside from Live More, there are four entities that purchased homes in the past year. Moreno has four children.

By comparison

Moreno’s opponent in November also published his financial disclosure this month, but for Democratic Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, the timeframe is different. While Moreno’s start and end points are tied to the point at which he became a candidate, sitting officeholders file disclosures based on the calendar year. Brown’s latest filing covers 2023.

Brown’s congressional salary is the chief source of income for he and his wife. He also reported about $28,000 in retirement from the state of Ohio. In terms of assets, the couple has between $484,000 and $1.16 million — the bulk of that coming from pension or retirement funds they don’t appear to be drawing down yet. Their reported liabilities include two mortgages and amount to $200,000 to $500,000.

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.