Yost said the six people indicted were not citizens when they allegedly voted in Ohio state or federal elections between 2008 and 2020. They were indicted for illegal voting, a fourth-degree felony. Three are from Franklin County and one each is from Cuyahoga, Summit and Portage counties. Their cases were heard by grand juries in their home counties. It is not clear if any of those indicted subsequently became naturalized citizens.
“Irregularities like this are rare, and this is a small number of cases,” Yost said. “We should all be confident in the upcoming election, knowing that the laws are being enforced and will continue to be enforced.”
Experts, including the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice and the libertarian-leaning CATO Institute, say voter fraud, including by noncitizens, is exceedingly rare. Ohio has about 8 million registered voters.
It is illegal in the U.S. for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and the Ohio Constitution prohibits noncitizens from voting in any elections.
Yost said he believes the six were the only ones among the 138 cases his office is investigating that were allegedly noncitizens when they voted. His office continues to investigate the remaining cases.
“A seventh case was presented to a Lorain County grand jury, which issued a ‘no-bill’ indictment, declining to charge the individual. The uncharged subject, an Oberlin college student, was alleged to have voted in Ohio and Washington in 2018,” according to a news release from Yost’s office.
Yost said he believes the grand jury didn’t indict that person because it couldn’t be proven that the person who voted was him.
This story is developing and will be updated.
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