Election security, results focus of Secretary of State's office
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Polls open on Tuesday morning for Election Day and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is reminding voters just how secure the state’s elections are.
“We're going to run an election tomorrow where it is both easy to vote and hard to cheat,” LaRose said.
More than 2.5 million Ohioans across the state have already cast their ballot during early voting. Larose said if enough people show up on Tuesday, the state could be on track to break the all-time voter turnout record, set in 2020.
“With 2.5 million people already participating in early voting, I think we could be on track to beat the all-time record if there's a big turnout on Election Day; 5.8 (million) was that turnout record in in 2020,” he said. “We're ready for that high turnout. If there is that record breaking kind of Election Day turnout, then we will go over the all-time record.”
LaRose said those 2.5 million early and absentee votes will be the first ballots counted when polls close on Tuesday night. He said much of the legwork has already been done to make sure those ballots are ready to go.
A bipartisan team has cut open the envelope and verified the identity of the voter by looking at their name, date of birth, address, last four digits of their Social Security number or their driver’s license number, and have matched signatures.
“Then they sever the identity from the ballot; that's when it becomes that secret ballot that we all rely on. They flatten that ballot out,” he said. “As you see the results come in, 7:45, 8:00, 8:30 on election night, those are all absentee ballots and early votes.”
Once polls close on Tuesday night, precincts will start sending ballots to their county board of elections to process the Election Day votes and start getting those into the system.
“When Ohioans go to bed on election night, they know whether their favorite candidate's won or lost,” LaRose said.
On election night, the results will be unofficial; 21 days later, the secretary of state’s office will release certified results after its Election Day audit. LaRose said that for the past two years, results from Election Day and the certified results have matched up nearly perfectly, with minuscule errors, if any.
Larose said he wants to be clear that voter fraud is “exceedingly rare” and said it is that way because Ohio enforces the law.
“If you mess around, you will find out,” he said. “If you think that you can get away with election fraud in Ohio, you've got another thing coming.”
LaRose said if a new citizen’s photo ID is not updated to show their status, they can remedy that by bringing their naturalization papers; otherwise, they will have to vote on a provisional ballot and will have a limited number of days to prove their citizenship. If you forget your photo ID, you will also vote on a provisional ballot and have to prove your identity.
“When I say we won't tolerate fraud and we won't tolerate suppression, we mean that. Neither of those things are common and neither of those things are ever tolerable,” he said.
Can the “exceedingly rare” number of fraud cases impact election results? LaRose said it depends on the race.
“Election fraud is rare, but even one or two or ten or a dozen instances could impact a very local election,” he said. “Is it likely to impact a statewide election? Statistically speaking, probably not, but it could impact a local election. And that's why we take it so seriously.”
LaRose also emphasized that if you are inside a polling place and are wearing any apparel like shirts, hats or pins with a candidate’s name on it or something suggesting how someone should vote on an issue, you’ll be asked to take it off or flip it inside out.