UPDATE: One of the six people who were indicted for voter fraud in this story has been dead for two years, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor announced in a withering statement to the media one day after this report aired.
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Six green card holders in Ohio have been indicted for illegally voting in previous elections.
Ahead of the November election, Attorney General Dave Yost announced the indictments during a press conference Tuesday morning.
"You will be held accountable in the state of Ohio," Yost said.
Of the six people indicted, three were from Northeast Ohio. A 68-year-old man from North Royalton in Cuyahoga County who allegedly voted in 2014, 2016 and 2018; a 78-year-old woman from Hudson in Summit County who allegedly voted in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019; and a 32-year-old man from Kent in Portage County who allegedly voted in 2016 and 2018.
The three others were based in the Columbus area. A 35-year-old man who allegedly voted in 2008 and 2020; A 53-year-old woman who allegedly voted in 2016 and 2020; and a 62-year-old woman who allegedly voted in 2016 and 2018.
Each of the six is a lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card holder.
"They're allowed to be here, but they're not a United States citizen and were not allowed to vote," Yost said.
Although these cases could result in felony convictions, Yost said he doesn’t anticipate any prison time.
There was another case that a grand jury declined to indict. A student at Oberlin College in Lorain County allegedly voted in both Ohio and Washington, according to Yost.
"We were able to prove that someone using his identity voted in both places," the AG said. "We were not able to prove that it was him that did that."
This investigation stems from the summer when Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose complained to Yost that local county prosecutors have not taken up his team’s possible election fraud referrals.
County prosecutors fought back, arguing that LaRose’s cases had no merit.
"If the Secretary of State wants to see more of his cases pursued by prosecutors, he would be better served investigating these scenarios that he's finding and sending us better cases rather than attacking prosecutors," Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association’s Lou Tobin said.
With these new indictments, I asked Yost about local involvement and if the county prosecutors had been aware of the allegations.
"Yeah, all of these cases had been previously declined for prosecution," Yost answered me.
I reached out to each county prosecutor with questions about what happened.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office adamantly denied ever having been referred the case of the now-indicted voter by either the AG or secretary's offices.
Previously, I talked with Andrew Rogalski with the office, who said his team looks into every referral — and they have the discretion to prosecute cases if they deem they have merit.
"There were cases that BCI investigated, and we decided on a case-by-case basis that prosecution wasn't warranted, but every case is investigated," Rogalski said in an interview in September.
The indictment in Summit County is listed as "secret," meaning it is confidential.
“Under the Ohio Revised Code, it is improper for anyone to comment on a secret indictment until the defendant is in custody or in court,” Summit County Prosecutor's Office Spokesperson James Pollack said.
It is unclear how Yost was able to talk about this one.
I am still awaiting a response from the Portage and Franklin County Prosecutor's Offices.
Something noted while talking to different agencies and boards of elections is that three out of the five counties that the Republican AG and secretary looked into are Democratic strongholds. The other two (including Lorain) are pivot counties, meaning they vote for Democrats and Republicans. Each of the counties listed has Democratic prosecuting attorneys.
Cuyahoga County, once again, strongly denied any knowledge of their case. They said no referral was sent to them, and thus, they never declined to prosecute.
They take voter fraud extremely seriously and have already convicted two individuals of voter fraud in the past year, they added.
I requested all of the offices to see if referrals were made.
During the press conference, Yost emphasized that six possible fraudulent voters out of the 8 million registered is a minuscule amount — and prove that Ohio doesn’t have widespread voter fraud.
"Voting irregularities like this are rare... We should all be confident of the upcoming election that the laws are being enforced, they'll continue to be enforced," the AG said.
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