Ohio’s Republican attorney general revealed this week that six Ohioans were charged with illegal voting as noncitizens, a fourth-degree felony, between 2008 and 2020.
However, one of the indicted individuals has been dead for about two years.
In September, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent roughly 600 cases of alleged voting irregularities to county prosecutors. When they didn’t act, he took them to Attorney General Dave Yost, who brought them before grand juries.
In a Tuesday press conference, Yost announced the six cases that grand juries throughout the state had indicted. “This is an astronomical number of cases. Voting abnormalities like this are uncommon.
A Cuyahoga County voter was among the six indicted and was set to be arraigned next month. However, Democratic prosecutor Michael O’Malley asserts that the individual in question has been deceased since 2022. In a statement, he stated his agency is “philosophically opposed to indicting deceased individuals who clearly have no way of defending themselves.”
He went on to say, “This is one of the most extreme cases of prosecutorial overreach I’ve ever seen.” The practice of indicting the dead is harsh. This is not how we would have handled the situation in my office. I urge Ohio Attorney General David Yost to dismiss this case immediately.”
Yost’s office has stated that he will dismiss the indictment.
LaRose sent 597 election integrity cases to county prosecutors in September, including the six mentioned above. The prosecutors handled only a small percentage of those cases. When LaRose protested the inaction, Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association executive director Lou Tobin responded: “These are referrals that frequently lack the minimal evidence required to pursue charges or an indictment, let alone a conviction.”
LaRose then presented the cases to Yost, saying, “I am confident that our excellent attorney general will investigate this.”
Yost stated at the news conference that 138 of the instances referred by LaRose were suspected of illicit voting, but the majority were concerned with improper voter registration, which his office does not have the jurisdiction to pursue. However, he expressed concern about the attention this issue was receiving.
“I believe that we should focus on voting.” Yost stated that he possesses the necessary resources to pursue these cases. “I’m considering diverting resources from officer-involved critical event investigations, child rapes, and murders to pursue voter registration cases from previous elections,” Yost said. We must convene a meeting to deliberate on the allocation of resources.
Voters decisively adopted a constitutional amendment that prohibits non-citizens from voting in local or state elections in 2022. Ohio authorities have consistently stated that the state operates the “gold standard” of election systems.
