Buckeye Reporter

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced the statewide rollout of a new voter registration data integrity program to enhance the accuracy of voter rolls. Following a successful pilot, the tool is now being distributed to all county boards of elections to help address voter registration issues.

LaRose is expanding a voter registration integrity program that initially launched with six county boards of elections. According to LaRose, the program provides digital dashboards to identify registration discrepancies, such as illegal characters in names, placeholder birth dates, unreasonably high ages, and improper birth/registration date combinations. This initiative follows the 2023 DATA Act, which established the Office of Data Analytics and Archives to enhance election data management and transparency in Ohio.

"These data entry discrepancies are not commonly indicative of fraud or irregularities, but they must be resolved in order to comply with our shared statutory responsibility to maintain the accuracy of the statewide voter registration database," said LaRose. "Many of Ohio’s registration records have been manually entered into the system from a hand-written form, which can sometimes lead to data entry errors. This innovative tool will help every county election office to clear up these issues more effectively, and I look forward to building on the success of the pilot program as we get ready for the November election."

Fox News reported that LaRose is taking steps to remove hundreds of noncitizens from voter rolls following an election year audit. The audit found 499 registered voters who were not U.S. citizens, confirmed by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the federal SAVE database.

LaRose, Ohio's 51st Secretary of State since January 14, 2019, is a former U.S. Army Reservist, state senator, U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, and Eagle Scout who oversees elections and business incorporations in the state.