The state attorney general and several county prosecutors will be reviewing cases of potential voter fraud where people are accused of casting a vote in a different state then casting another in Ohio.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose says his office found 18 incidents where a person voted in Ohio and another state during the 2018 general election. Of those 18 incidents, there are 10 cases where the second vote was cast in Ohio.
The alleged crime is in the second vote, so those 10 cases have been referred to the Ohio Attorney General's Office and the county prosecutor's office where the vote was cast.
"The reason is simple and obvious: Each of us deserve an equal voice in our democracy and allowing one voter to cast multiple ballots diminishes the value of the legally cast ballot of each other voter," LaRose wrote in a letter to the Ohio Attorney General.
LaRose emphasizes that cases of voter fraud and voter suppression are "exceedingly rare and certainly not systemic."
Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, says they support an investigation into any wrongdoing. But she argues this proves that voter fraud is rare in the state.
"It's 10 votes out of almost 5 million cast, so very, very, very minute problem, but part of preventing it from becoming a problem is by prosecuting malicious attempts to double vote," Miller says.
LaRose says these cases were discovered through an elections data tool, Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which tracks potential fraud around the country through the collaboration of other states.
