Ohio secretary of state orders removal of non-citizens from state voter rolls

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) ordered the removal of non-citizens from the state's voter rolls after more than 100 were found registered despite confirming their lack of U.S. citizenship.

On Tuesday, LaRose directed all 88 counties to begin a removal process for non-citizens on Ohio's voter rolls following a review by his office's Public Integrity Division and Office of Data Analytics and Archives. The review analyzed data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and found 137 voter registrations of non-citizens who had twice confirmed their lack of U.S. citizenship.

State law requires non-citizens to confirm to the BMV twice that they are not U.S. citizens. The secretary of state's office will send two notices to the Ohio residents to either cancel their voter registration or confirm their U.S. citizenship. If they do not respond to the notices, then they will be removed from the state voter rolls.

“It’s important to recognize that some of these registrations may be the result of an honest mistake,” LaRose said in a statement. “These may be well-meaning people trying to pursue the American dream, and communication barriers sometimes result in a registration form being submitted in error. We need to help them get that cleared up before an accidental registration becomes an illegal vote that could result in a felony conviction or even deportation.”

LaRose's office also asked the Biden administration to provide citizenship data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' SAVE database, federal district court records, and databases from the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration.