Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said that of Ohio’s eight million registered voters, nearly 600 are noncitizens who were either registered to vote or actually voted last year or earlier this year.
However, LaRose said many of them may not be prosecuted for election law violations because voter fraud is extremely rare.
LaRose said his office found 597 cases where noncitizens were improperly registered to vote. He has reason to believe that 138 of the 597 voters voted last year. He has referred the cases to district attorneys, who will further investigate these cases and decide whether to file charges for these crimes.
There is more to it than meets the eye
Noncitizens are permitted to obtain a driver’s license in Ohio and are then given the opportunity to register to vote, but are not permitted to do so. Sometimes noncitizens do not understand that they are not eligible to vote, or Bureau of Motor Vehicles employees mistakenly register noncitizens.
Joe Mas, a Columbus lawyer who has handled several cases involving immigrants facing criminal charges, said there are often language barriers in situations like this.
“In none of the cases was anyone trying to get away with anything,” Mas said. “In every single case, it was a mistake or a misunderstanding.”
According to Mas, one case involved a business owner from Canada who was a legal permanent resident and voted for former President Donald Trump. Mas said the man was improperly registered when he tried to apply for a driver’s license.
“They asked him if he wanted to register and he said, ‘I’m not a citizen. I’m a legal permanent resident.’ But the person (at the BMV) insisted that it was OK for him to register,” Mas said. “So the man thought it was OK for him to vote.”
Mas said the man was not prosecuted. However, he said another client of his had to plead guilty. Mas said that client owned a business in Newark and voted on a local ordinance that he thought affected his business and continued to vote for the remaining candidates because he thought he was allowed to do so.
LaRose said he knows of cases where noncitizens have been improperly placed on the voter rolls. And he said his office tries to uncover those cases. He said they send a letter reminding noncitizens that they cannot legally vote, and then send another letter before pursuing prosecutions.
“We send everyone a letter beforehand saying that according to our records, you are not a citizen and are ready to vote. If you did this in error, you should return the form marked ‘I do not wish to be a registered voter’ in the self-addressed envelope we provide,” LaRose said.
LaRose said his office gets a high response rate when they send such letters, and in some cases, recipients do everything they can to rectify the situation.
“There were people who came into our office in Columbus and said, ‘Oh no, that was a mistake,'” LaRose said.
Mas said that sometimes people who are facing criminal proceedings somehow fall through the net, especially given the language barrier.
Yellow Springs voters had agreed in 2019 to allow noncitizens to vote on local issues, but LaRose said noncitizen registrations would not be accepted. In 2022, Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment banning noncitizens from voting.
