Tag: Secretary of State Frank LaRose

Eight Races Decided by Two Votes or Fewer in Ohio General Election

Hannah Poling

Ohio County Boards of Elections finalized its post-election audit of the November 2022 general election. According to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the results show a 99.9 percent accuracy rate.

Ohio County Boards of Elections finalized its post-election audit of the November 2022 general election. According to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the general election resulted in several exceptionally close votes and eight races resulted in either a tie or were decided by two votes or fewer.

According to Larose, these tight races once again prove “that every vote matters.”

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Exclusive: FBI Probing Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Blystone Campaign Finances Says Whistleblower’s Attorney

Neil W. McCabe
Joe Blystone

  In an exclusive interview with The Ohio Star, the lawyer representing a whistleblower and former co-campaign manager for Joseph K. Blystone‘s quest for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Sarah Chambers that the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are probing Blystone’s campaign finances. “Sarah and I met with them on Thursday, November 18, in their Columbus office,” said Scott A. Pullins, a Mount Vernon attorney whose practice has included representing many campaigns and campaign law compliance clients. Pullins also said Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and his Campaign Finance Division, received evidence of Blystone campaign finance misconduct and took no action. FBI reaches out to Chambers The graduate of The Ohio State University and the Capital University Law School said he also took note that FBI Special Agent Blaine Wetzel, one of the agents who interviewed Chambers that day, was listed as a virtual attendee at the December 16 Ohio Elections Commission hearing, where the commission reviewed the 51-page campaign finance complaint filed by Chambers and other former senior Blystone campaign staffers October 28 against Blystone, his wife, and campaign treasurer, M. Jane Blystone and his campaign committee Friends of Joe Blystone. In the complaint, Chambers, and others detailed how Blystone…

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Former Co-Campaign Manager: Why I Accused GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Joe Blystone of Campaign Corruption

Neil W. McCabe

The complainant of the October 28 campaign finance complaint against Republican gubernatorial candidate Joseph K. Blystone told The Ohio Star she tried to convince Blystone to play by the rules before leaving the campaign.

“I had conversations about that, I would say at least five times personal conversations about that very thing, not only myself, but other leaders who I have emails from that I still have,” said Sarah Chambers, who joined the Blystone campaign in March and for the next four months served as the co-campaign manager.

“I emailed him concerns about: ‘Hey, how are we supposed to be doing campaign finance? How do donations work? What do we need to be keeping track of?’” she said.

“I really didn’t want to have to bring this complaint. It wasn’t my intention really to bring it, and I kind of just kept putting aside my own personal feelings and responsibility, just to tell the truth about what happened,” she said.

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Report: Gov. DeWine Selling Out to Democrats in Ohio Redistricting Battle

Peter D'Abrosca

According to a report in Breitbart News, sources familiar with Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine plans for the state’s redistricting battle include DeWine supporting a map that would help Democrats gain U.S. House seats in 2022.

That report also says that Republican state auditor Keith Faber and Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose are supportive of the new left-leaning map. 

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Ohio Secretary of State Restricts Ballot Drop Boxes, ACLU Vows to Fight

Peter D'Abrosca

Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State is catching heat from liberal groups, despite allowing the state to proceed with absentee voting via drop boxes.

“Even though Ohio law does not explicitly provide for the use of secure receptacles, commonly known as ‘drop boxes,’ for an absentee voter to return their ballot to the director, this Directive, once again, provides for the continued use of secure receptacles outside of the boards of elections,” Frank LaRose (R) said in a February 12 directive. 

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Conservatives Critical of VP Hopeful Kamala Harris Stop at Cuyahoga County Polling Place

Jack Windsor

With just 10 days before the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election and President Donald Trump’s approval numbers increasing, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris toured northern Ohio on Saturday to rally voter turnout in the battleground state.

One of the stops the Vice Presidential candidate made was to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in downtown Cleveland – on the first day of early voting in one of Ohio’s largest counties.

The visit was criticized on social media – some claiming that Harris violated Ohio election law by campaigning at a poll location.

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Ohio Elections Chief Okay’s Drop Boxes Inside, Outside Boards

The Associated Press

Ohio’s secretary of state adjusted his one-box-per-county restriction Monday to say counties may collect absentee ballots both at their buildings and at locations outside, an update to an order that has landed him in both state and federal court.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose characterized his revised order as a “clarification” in a case that has highlighted the interest in access to ballot drop boxes amid coronavirus concerns, cuts at the U.S. Postal Service and President Donald Trump’s baseless assertions that mail-in voting is rigged.

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State Board Meets Today to Decide if Ohio Secretary of State May Spend Up to $3M to Prepay Absentee Ballot Postage

Jason M. Reynolds

A state board is meeting today to decide if Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose can spend up to $3 million to pay for absentee ballot postage for the November elections.

The Ohio Controlling Board will consider LaRose’s request today. Their agenda is here, and more information about LaRose’s request is here.

This appropriation of state funds will be used by the Ohio Secretary of State to pay the cost of returning absentee ballots on behalf of any Ohio voter who opts to use that manner of voting in the November 3, 2020 General Election. This will not expand Ohio’s existing absentee voting opportunities and will not permit universal vote by mail. There will still be in-person voting at polling locations on Election Day, November 3, 2020. 

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Absentee Ballot Order Approved, Then Halted

Ben Kolodny

An Ohio judge ordered Friday that voters be allowed to apply for absentee ballots for the November presidential election by using fax or email. The move was quickly halted by an appellate court.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Stephen McIntosh sided with Ohio Democrats in the legal dispute by allowing electronic absentee ballot applications to be filed. Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper called this ruling “a big win for Ohio Voters.”

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Two Days After Co-Sponsoring Impeachment, Ohio Representative Becomes Target of Investigation

Jack Windsor

On Monday morning, Representative Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) began the week with a bang – he announced on Facebook the release and his co-sponsorship of articles of impeachment levied against Republican Governor Mike DeWine.

Vitale and three other representatives co-sponsored the articles that outlined 10 offenses the foursome listed as reasons for DeWine to be removed from the state’s top post.

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Lawsuits Aimed to Expand Online Ballot Applications, Eliminate Signature Match Target Ohio Ahead of 2020 Election

The Associated Press

Voting rights groups and Democrats filed two, separate lawsuits in Ohio Friday that the parties said were aimed at making voting easier in the battleground state this November amid the coronavirus pandemic. The legal action aims to expand online and email ballot applications and 

Republicans, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, criticized the efforts. A GOP spokesman accusing the groups of “indifference to election security.”

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Ohio Near Bottom in Coronavirus Tests Per Capita Among All 50 States

Jason M. Reynolds
Gov. DeWine Coronavirus Testina

Ohio is 44th out of 50 states in terms of the number of tests performed per capita for the Chinese coronavirus, data show.

Worldometers tracks COVID-19 test results and related data. The information, which was updated Sunday afternoon, is available here.

Looking at tests performed by 1 million, or per capita, is a method to adjust for population differences.

Based on that strategy, Ohio is 44th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., with 5,432 tests done for every person out of 1 million people.

The national figure is 8,371 tests per million.

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LaRose Draws Heat for Moving Primary Election Date, a Move Called ‘Anarchy’ and ‘Executive Fiat’

Jason M. Reynolds

Skeptics are calling Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s June 2 primary election date theoretical, saying the Legislature, not he, has the power to move the date.

Adjectives that are being thrown around include “anarchy” and “executive fiat.”

LaRose is already dictating the rules 88 county boards of elections should follow, the Ohio Capital Journal said. These LaRose rules include the dictate that county boards of election should not accept any new voter registrations ahead of the not-yet-official June 2 election.

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