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FIRST ON FOX: Ohio’s secretary of state referred dozens of noncitizens and double voters for potential prosecution in eight states and Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
The official, Frank LaRose, says his office uncovered evidence of 30 non-U.S. citizens who were registered to vote in Ohio. Likewise, the investigation uncovered eleven individuals from Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, and South Carolina who appeared to have voted in multiple jurisdictions.
“We must send a clear message that election fraud won’t be tolerated,” LaRose said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The only way to maintain Ohio’s high standard of election integrity is to enforce the law whenever it’s broken.”
Ohio’s Election Integrity Unit conducted the investigation by reviewing Ohio’s voter registry and comparing it with federal and state data.
LaRose sent letters to the attorneys general of all states involved in the investigation and referred the individuals for prosecution.
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Ohio’s office of the secretary of state referred 41 people for potential prosecution on illegal voting grounds across eight states and Washington, D.C. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
“Critics of Ohio’s election integrity efforts may try to minimize the significance of these referrals, as though some small amount of election crime is acceptable,” LaRose wrote to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “Even one illegal vote can spoil the outcome of an election for the citizenry at large, whether it be a school levy, majority control of a legislative chamber, or even a statewide election contest.”
“Just this last election, a single vote in Licking County decided the outcome of a local levy after the final certified count,” LaRose noted.
Yost’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose speaks during a House Administration Committee hearing in the Longworth House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol. (Getty Images)
Ohio’s move comes just days after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department sued the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Board of Elections last week for allegedly failing to maintain an accurate voter list.
The Trump administration claims the Tar Heel State is in violation of the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) after board officials provided a statewide voter registration form that did not make clear whether an applicant must provide a driver’s license number, or if the applicant does not have a driver’s license, the last four digits of the applicant’s social security number. If an applicant has neither, the law says the state must assign a special identifying number.
President Donald Trump’s justice department is suing North Carolina for failing to properly maintain its state voter rolls. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The lawsuit claims that a “significant number” of North Carolina voters who did not fill out voter registration forms in compliance with HAVA were “nonetheless registered by their election officials.”
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A previous edition of the state elections board, which had a Democratic majority, acknowledged the problem in late 2023 after a voter complained. The board updated the voter registration form but declined to contact people who had registered to vote since 2004 in time for the 2024 elections so they could fill in the missing numbers.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
