Frank LaRose, secretary of state, spoke at the Allen County Republicans luncheon Friday in Lima.
Cade Higgins | The Lima News
LIMA — Secretary of State Frank LaRose informed Allen County Republicans how Ohio’s elections have been and will continue to be secured.
At their monthly meeting at the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Lima, the Allen County Republicans listened to Secretary of State LaRose emphasize the importance of voting and ensuring the integrity of Ohio’s voter rolls, as well as Issue 1, on Friday.
“You don’t have to choose between convenience or security; in Ohio we have both,” he said.
According to LaRose, with bi-partisan oversight in Ohio, the integrity of elections is protected. “It’s not that way in every state. In some states, it’s the elected county clerk that runs elections. If the county clerk is a Democrat, everybody in the elections office is probably a Democrat, and the same can be said if they are Republican. What a foolish idea,” he said.
LaRose and his team check the voter lists for accuracy on an ongoing basis, protecting election integrity. “On a monthly basis, we remove deceased voters from the voter rolls. We also make sure that only American citizens can be registered to vote,” he said.
Individuals who haven’t voted for a six-year continuous period as well as individuals who have moved out of the state are also removed from the voter rolls. “When people have bad data in the voter rolls, we’re going to remove it,” he said.
LaRose said he has caught more than 600 people who aren’t citizens who tried to vote. “This is a violation of the law,” he said.
Voter fraud is rare, according to LaRose, because of the implementation of rules and laws.
“In my five years in this office, we’ve had over a 99 percent accuracy rate when counting the paper ballots and comparing it to the electronic result,” he said.
LaRose also spoke on Issue 1.
“Issue 1 is a power grab by the Democrats. They can’t win at the ballot box because Ohio has rejected their bad, tired, dangerous old idea, and because they can’t win at the ballot box, they want to control how district lines are drawn,” he said.
“Their whole job is going to be to draw a certain number of Democratic districts. If you bother reading the 13,000-word amendment, it will tell you that,” he said.
$26 million has been raised by Democrats, 85% of which comes from out-of-state, including $6 million from a Swiss billionaire toward Issue 1, according to LaRose.
“This is dangerous,” he said.
Reach Cade Higgins at 567-242-0351
