Politics
Ohio Secretary Of State Finds Proof Of Noncitizen Voting
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Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced late Monday his office found evidence of illegal voting by non-citizens in jurisdictions across the state.
A meticulous review of Ohio’s Statewide Registered Voter Database conducted by his office found 385 non-citizens were registered to vote, 82 of whom cast ballots in at least one election.
Though the figure appears high, it is of practically no consequence in a state where 7.8 million people are registered to vote. Still, Husted noted in a statement released in connection with the investigation that a number of elections had been decided by margins narrow enough to warrant concern.
“In light of the national discussion about illegal voting it is important to inform our discussions with facts,” Husted said. “The fact is voter fraud happens, it is rare and when it happens, we hold people accountable.”
“I have a responsibility to preserve the integrity of Ohio’s elections system,” he added. “When you consider that in Ohio we have had 112 elections decided by one vote or tied in the last three years, every case of illegal voting must be taken seriously and elections officials must have every resource available to them to respond accordingly.”
The office did not find evidence of non-citizen voting in elections which featured ties or close margins.
This is the third such review Husted has ordered since taking office in 2010. During his tenure as secretary of state, the office has found 821 non-citizens on state voter rolls, and 126 instances of non-citizens voting. The investigation was conducted with data furnished by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The bureau requires applicants for driver’s licenses or government-issued IDs to present evidence of their natural birth or lawful presence in the U.S.
Husted also said a more thorough review of state voter rolls could be conducted with data from the Social Security Administration, though the federal government has repeatedly declined to make such information available to the states.
The findings largely correspond to academic studies surveying the issue. Most researchers have concluded that non-citizen voting is extremely rare, and almost never affects the outcome of an election. Even studies that do evidence high rates of non-citizen voting, as a 2014 article in “Electoral Studies” does, conclude that most illegal aliens do not register to vote. This study also found that voter ID laws do little to prevent non-citizens from voting, as long term resident aliens generally acquire some form of photo ID eventually.
Ohio is among the states that require voters to present an ID or conclusive proof of identity to poll workers before casting a ballot.
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