COLUMBUS, Ohio — After the Ohio Attorney General indicted a dead man for voter fraud, Cuyahoga County officials are accusing him of playing politics ahead of the election. We obtained documents that show the start of a communication breakdown.
It’s been quite a week for Attorney General Dave Yost.
"We're talking today about noncitizen voting," Yost said during a press conference Tuesday.
During his event, the AG boasted six indictments of voter fraud from previous elections. Each is a green card holder who allegedly voted in previous elections.
Three were from Northeast Ohio, and the three remaining were from the Columbus area. All were lawful permanent residents — or green card holders.
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.
Of the six people indicted, one was A 68-year-old man from North Royalton who allegedly voted in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
"You will be held accountable in the state of Ohio," Yost said.
Even if you're dead?
As it turns out, that voter died two years ago. Yet, Yost charged him.
"This is one of the greatest examples of prosecutorial overreach I have ever witnessed," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement Wednesday that I broke. "The practice of indicting the deceased is draconian.”
O'Malley says he is "philosophically opposed to indicting deceased individuals who clearly have no way of defending themselves."
RELATED: Cuyahoga county prosecutor lambasts state attorney general for voter fraud indictment of dead man
"This is not how we would have handled this case in my office," O'Malley said. "I am calling on Ohio Attorney General David Yost to immediately dismiss this indictment."
Once Yost’s team learned of the death, they told us that “of course,” they would be dismissing the charges. On Friday, we asked LaRose how this could have happened.
"Well, you know, really — that's a question for the county prosecutor because why did it take so long that he didn't prosecute this case and we had to refer it over to the attorney general?" LaRose answered.
Cuyahoga County has continued to adamantly deny having a referral for this case, but we obtained some records from the AG's office.
In a log note from March 25, 2020, a special agent from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation wrote that he sent the "completed investigative reports" related to the alleged voter to the former assistant prosecuting attorney for Cuyahoga County for review.
"No additional investigative efforts are needed at this time," the agent wrote.
At the top of the log, it marks the case as "closing."
I followed up with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office spokesperson, Lexi Bauer. The team was unavailable to do an interview, but they provided insight whenever we reached out throughout the week.
“We have searched our case management system, and we have no record of the case," Bauer texted me.
In an earlier text, she told me they "can’t speak to why it was closed in theirs."
She added that their APA left the office in early 2023.
"We have prosecuted multiple voter fraud cases referred to us by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office including one this week," she said. "We work with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office on a daily basis. If there was an issue on this case, it was never brought to our office’s attention."
I asked the AG’s office for any documentation showing direct communication between their office and Cuyahoga County or a letter from the county declining to prosecute. Their spokesperson told me they are working on my multitude of requests.
Bauer, however, raised a point that multiple other officials from other counties brought up — the timing is "suspicious."
"We can only speculate why this matter arose two weeks before Election Day, but it appears to be politically motivated," Bauer said. "A sincere prosecution of this matter would have included an investigation which would have quickly revealed that [the individual] died two years ago. Obviously, this investigation was not completed before presentation to the grand jury."
Case Western Reserve University nonpartisan elections law professor Atiba Ellis was bewildered by the indictment revelation. He also questioned the timing and scrutiny of both Yost and LaRose.
"This seems more targeted at trying to demonstrate proof where proof has been scant," Ellis added. "By indicting a dead person, it would at least raise the presumption that the Attorney General's office or the Secretary of State's office has not done the due diligence needed in order to bring proper indictments."
Something noted while talking to different agencies and boards of elections is that each county that the Republican AG and secretary looked into has Democratic prosecutors.
Of the alive (that we know of) people indicted, two were from Northeast Ohio. One was a 78-year-old woman from Hudson in Summit County who allegedly voted in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The other was 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 allegedly voted in 2008 and 2020; a 53-year-old woman allegedly voted in 2016 and 2020; and a 62-year-old woman allegedly voted in 2016 and 2018.
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 break the news about this one on Tuesday before the individual was in custody or in court.
The Portage County Prosecutor's Office never responded to repeated requests.
Franklin County Prosecutor's Office, which has an outside Public Relations firm run its communications, said they were indeed referred the cases.
"The office reviewed the cases and made the decision not to move forward with prosecuting them," the PR team said.
I asked their spokesperson why they didn't prosecute.
"At this time, they don’t want to share those reasons," was the response I got back.
All in all, 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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