Maybe Donald Trump was on to something about voter fraud, at least according to an investigation in Ohio.
The result of an investigation into illegal voting conducted by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted were revealed on Monday and it was found that hundreds of individuals (but not thousands or millions) were registered to vote, despite not being U.S. citizens. Whats more, the investigation found nearly eight dozen voted illegally in past elections.
WCMH News in Columbus obtained the results of the investigation and reports that 385 non-citizens were found to be registered to vote in the state of Ohio and up to 82 of those people actually voted illegally in at least one election in the past year. Husted promised those 82 people would be referred to the appropriate authorities for more investigation and possible prosecution. Of the remaining 303 non-citizen registered voters, evidence does not yet confirm they have voted in elections, so they are expected to received letters asking them to cancel their registration. Anyone who refuses to do so after two warnings will also be subject to prosecution.
“In light of the national discussion about illegal voting it is important to inform our discussions with facts,” Secretary Husted said. “The fact is voter fraud happens, it is rare and when it happens, we hold people accountable.”
He added, “I have a responsibility to preserve the integrity of Ohio’s elections system. 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.”
Husted said the number of non-citizen registered voters has increased in recent years and he has pleaded with Washington for more help fighting the matter. top no avail. He also said the fact that 2o16 was a presidential election year may account for the increase.
“If we had access to that information we could prevent this in advance and we could find out what the probably bigger number is of people who are on the voter rolls or who have voted and shouldn’t be,” the secretary of state said.
Editors note: a previous version referred to Jon Husted as Attorney General once, not Secretary of State.
[image via screengrab]
