Disputes over access to the vote intensify as Ohioans begin to cast ballots

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Several disputes over voter rights in Ohio were unresolved Tuesday as the state began accepting early ballots in this fall’s election for president, a key U.S. Senate race and a redistricting measure.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose had not yet responded to Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, which notified him last week that voters were being systematically removed from the rolls in several counties as a result of third-party challenges. The advocacy groups alleged the actions violate provisions of the National Voting Registration Act.

LaRose’s office said he had cast a tie vote keeping most of the challenged voters in one of the counties, Delaware, on the rolls. He is reviewing claims in three additional counties.

National groups allied with former President Donald Trump have been facilitating these citizen-powered efforts to systematically challenge the legitimacy of large numbers of voter registrations. LaRose praised their efforts and believes accurate voter rolls are a core tenet of any well-run election, said spokesman Dan Lusheck.

“Ohio runs some of the most transparent elections in the nation, and we are proud of that,” Lusheck said.

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Meanwhile, minority Democrats at the Ohio Statehouse carried on questioning LaRose’s removal of 155,000 voter registration records in August. He has said the legally required actions targeted registration records of inactive, noncitizen, deceased or otherwise ineligible voters.

On Monday, state Rep. Elliot Forhan, a Cleveland-area Democrat, filed a formal challenge asking the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to restore 741 voters in the county — a Democratic stronghold potentially pivotal in U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s tight reelection bid against Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno.

State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, another Democrat from the Cleveland area, sent a letter to LaRose on Tuesday reiterating her earlier request for additional records involving the office’s removal processes. Her office uncovered more than 1,000 wrongfully removed voters in Cuyahoga County alone with the help of previously released records, she said, and requested a third-party audit.

“If Frank LaRose isn’t going to ensure all eligible voters have the right to vote in Ohio, the least he can do is give me the public records, so I can do it for him,” Sweeney said in a statement.

LaRose’s office had no immediate comment.

Also yet to be resolved is the Ohio Democratic Party’s September lawsuit challenging a LaRose directive that prevents people who are helping voters with disabilities drop off their ballots from using drop boxes.

The secretary issued his order after a federal judge struck down portions of Ohio’s sweeping 2023 election law in July, allowing more classes of people to help voters with disabilities deliver their ballots. It affirmed the helpers could do so, but added requirements that they drop the ballots inside board of elections offices and sign a form vouching for their identities.

LaRose called the move a precaution against ballot harvesting. Democrats said that it is illegal.

Three of the Ohio Supreme Court’s seven justices — two Democrats and a Republican, all seeking office this fall — have recused themselves in the case. A fourth was asked to, but refused.

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The Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party said Tuesday they have moved to intervene in the case.

“Secretary LaRose has taken critical steps to safeguard Ohio’s elections, but once again Democrats are trying to dismantle commonsense protections that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” national committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “This is yet another poorly veiled attempt to eliminate ballot safeguards and interfere right before the election — and we will stop them.”