Buckeye Reporter

Gina Swoboda, Executive Director of the Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), announced that VRF would be raising Ohio's data transparency score by eight points in light of Ohio's DATA Act. The DATA Act was passed by the Ohio Senate on May 17 but is not guaranteed to make it into Ohio's final operating budget.

“Ohio’s persistent commitment to election integrity has increased their data transparency score by eight points, bringing their total score to 92!” Swoboda said in a release.

According to a press release from the office of Ohio's Secretary of State, the DATA Act seeks to modernize and overhaul the state's methods for retaining election data. The DATA Act codifies standard definitions of key election data points so that post-election results can be analyzed more effectively and accurately.

The Secretary of State's office argues that without these standards for clear election data definitions, the process of analyzing results becomes much more complicated, which could open the door to election skeptics. They note that the ultimate goal of the DATA Act is to increase voter confidence by providing the public with full transparency for election data and results. Additionally, the law will define clear methods and timelines for retaining election data and disclosing it to the public through the Secretary of State's Office of Data Analytics and Archives.

The DATA Act passed the Ohio Senate by a margin of 24-7.

According to a release from the Voter Reference Foundation, an organization that grades states on their election data transparency, Ohio's score was raised from an 84 to a 92 due to the DATA Act. The DATA Act increased Ohio's marks in several categories including "adding historical records and archives" and "adding standard definitions for the data."

VRF argues that, with the DATA Act, Secretary of State Frank LaRose is setting a "gold standard" for archiving data and providing transparency to the public. VRF also encouraged the legislature to pass the act and ensure that the OH SoS's Office of Data Analytics and Archives is fully funded in Ohio's operating budget.

VRF also took to Twitter to thank Secretary LaRose and his team for working to increase voter confidence in Ohio's elections with the DATA Act.

A survey conducted of Ohio votes after the most recent Presidential election conducted by Your Voice Ohio and the University of Akron showed that while most Ohioans were "greatly or somewhat confident" in the election, nearly 25% of Ohio voters responded that they had little or no confidence in the election.