COLUMBUS, Ohio — In his hunt for unsubstantiated widespread voter fraud, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has accused county prosecutors of purposely ignoring his referrals of possible election rigging. On the other hand, law enforcement officials are offended by his "baseless attack," explaining the secretary's "cases" of fraud have no merit.
The Republican secretary, despite touting that Ohio is the "gold standard" of elections, is blaming county officials for not pursuing alleged fraud.
There is no widespread fraud, which is why there is a lack of convictions, according to Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association’s Lou Tobin.
"When the prosecutor chases it down, it turns out there's nothing there," Tobin said.
Despite this, LaRose’s team complained in a letter to Attorney General Dave Yost that prosecutors have not taken up possible election fraud referrals.
"It was an attack on prosecutors," Tobin said.
Since 2019, the secretary's office referred 633 people to law enforcement for potential violations. Of that, only 12 people have been charged. Cuyahoga County had two of the successful prosecutions.
In 2023, A Shaker Heights Trump supporter who had voted in both Ohio and Florida received three years in prison.
The same year, an unaffiliated elderly voter from Westlake was charged with voting in Ohio and Arizona. In 2024, he pleaded guilty and was fined $1,000.
Case Western Reserve University elections law professor Atiba Ellis explained LaRose’s view.
"Law enforcement isn't doing their job and therefore all of this voter fraud that 'must exist' is being missed," Ellis said.
In the Tuesday letter from Hun Yi, LaRose's director of investigations, he told Yost that "many of these referrals have not been pursued by law enforcement."
"We do respect prosecutorial discretion and didn't expect all 633 referrals to lead to criminal charges, but only 12 out of 633 shows a second set of eyes is needed to determine whether prosecution of these crimes is justified," said Hun Yi, LaRose's director of investigations.
In a press release the same day, LaRose said that the cases haven’t been pursued “sometimes by choice and other times due to limited prosecutorial capacity.”
He also sent Yost a breakdown of possible violations. I have requested and am awaiting the referral document of the alleged fraud.
Most county prosecutors we reached out to were busy arguing actual cases in court Friday, but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office Economic Crimes Unit Supervisor Andrew Rogalski sat down to explain why LaRose isn't getting his desired convictions.
"I am aware of not one case where we got a referral and then just didn't do anything with it," Rogalski said.
Many of the cases LaRose refers to his team are of people possibly double voting.
"Prosecution wasn't warranted because the investigation showed that it wasn't, in fact, the same person voting," the official said.
Other prosecutor teams reached out to us to share the same sentiment.
In the letter to the AG, Yi wrote that noncitizens may be registering and committing voting violations. Rogalski looked into this.
"In every instance, the form that [noncitizens] used to register, they did not lie," he shared. "They checked the box that said they were noncitizen."
Before LaRose's team even referred it to Cuyahoga, they sent the individual a form instructing them that they were inappropriately registered and that they should fill out this form to rescind their registration.
"In almost every instance, the noncitizen filled out that form and had their registration rescinded," Rogalski said.
There was no need to move forward on cases with people who rescinded the registration form because of a "lack of criminal intent," he added.
The prosecutors can't pursue meritless cases, Tobin said.
"There's just minimal evidence there to pursue the indictment or to obtain a conviction," Tobin said. "Others are simply things that don't warrant a prosecution."
Yost’s legal team responded in a letter Thursday that they can’t investigate. His office is only allowed to investigate alleged voting fraud, not voter registration fraud, which is what the “overwhelming majority” of referrals are.
Voter registration fraud tends to be when someone makes a mistake on their application, Ellis explained.
"Mistakes by the voter, which yes, that causes regulatory problems, but that doesn't equal a mass conspiracy of voter fraud," the professor said.
Yost's team wrote that the only way for them to get involved is if the legislators change state law.
Ellis worries that more unnecessary policing could lead to voter suppression.
"Prosecuting voters for fraud that doesn't exist sounds like a formula for intimidation," he said.
This wouldn't be the first time LaRose is accused of trying to subvert the will of the voter.
In just the past year, LaRose tried to eliminate drop boxes after Ohioans with disabilities got better access to voting, drastically changed the redistricting amendment's language (one that would take power away from politicians, including him, and give it back to the citizens) in a move that both Democrats and Republicans said was unethical and was the face of the campaign to eliminate majority rule in the state (August 2023 Issue 1, which was to make it harder for citizens to amend the constitution and also was the direct result of the abortion access amendment making the ballot).
For Ellis, this is frustrating to watch.
"It's a problem being invented by people who distrust the voters and therefore want to prosecute the voters," he said.
He said it's also a game of political blame-shifting. Because the evidence doesn't support the voter fraud evidence, accuse people of not doing their jobs in order to "explain it away," he added.
Cuyahoga County, although having a great relationship with the AG's office, said they are likely the largest prosecutor's office in the state and can handle what comes to them — or they know how to ask for help when they need it.
"The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office is fully equipped and fully committed to prosecuting all Ohio offenses that occur in Cuyahoga County," Rogalski said. "Nothing I would like to change about that."
Tobin agreed, saying that prosecutors take their jobs seriously. LaRose is undermining them by calling on Yost and possibly the state lawmakers, he said.
"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," Tobin said.
And to be very clear, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Ohio.
Even without including odd-year elections, meaning just including presidential and gubernatorial years, plus the August 2023 special election, more than 23 million people voted from 2020 to now. Even if there were 633 true fraudulent allegations, which there aren't, according to prosecutors, that would be 0.0026%.
Trusting the prosecutors, fraud would be at 0.00005% — showing this is not a widespread issue.
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