As their candidate for president continues to falsely claim there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, Republicans are hoping to recruit and train thousands of volunteers to be on the lookout for potential problems in elections in 18 states, including Ohio. But voting rights activists are worried the GOP’s Protect the Vote effort may create extra anxiety about the safety of Ohio’s election system, which many Republicans call the “gold standard”.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley said the goal was thousands of volunteers in 18 states, including Ohio, to watch for issues in early voting or on election day.
"You need to be in the room when the votes are being cast and the votes are being counted," Whatley told a group of GOP volunteers last week.
Whatley held the event with Attorney General Dave Yost and former Florida AG Pam Bondi, an ally of former president Trump who served as one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial. Whatley said this effort will create more confidence in the system, and he’s not concerned about voter intimidation.
“No. I think one of the things that we focus on, in the training sessions is making sure that we respect the process, we respect the poll workers, and we respect, most importantly, the voters," Whatley told reporters after the event.
In Ohio, bipartisan boards of elections recruit and train poll workers, and election observers are appointed by the parties, candidates or campaigns. They must be credentialed in advance and can't just show up on election day.
Whatley also said the RNC will hire thousands of attorneys to observe on election day. This comes as former president Donald Trump has said his focus is not on voter turnout among Republicans but instead to watch Democrats "to make sure they don't cheat, because we have all the votes we'll need." He’s made unfounded claims about widespread election fraud since 2016, and continues to falsely state the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The attempt to bring in more poll workers has the interest of both voting rights groups and Republican secretary of state Frank LaRose. But Catherine Turcer with Common Cause Ohio, which is part of the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, said efforts focusing solely fraud could have a negative effect.
"Unfortunately, they often make voters question everything. And I think it's so important that we don't just assume everything is working smoothly that we're thoughtful and we pay attention," Turcer said. "But efforts like this can cause everybody to be worried that things aren't fair or that something is going wrong behind the scenes. Now, a cure to this is to actually go to board of elections meetings."
Turcer has been on opposite sides of LaRose on redistricting and some voting laws. But on that last point—that people who are concerned about election integrity should reach out to boards of elections—they seem to agree.
"Being a poll worker, an actual election official is far better than being a so-called poll watcher. It's right there in the name. If you're a watcher, all you can do is watch," LaRose said. "I'd really encourage people, if you're concerned about or want to help, be part of making sure that our elections are both accessible and secure. Sign up at voteohio.gov to be one of those 30,000 Ohioans that it takes to run Election Day. It's much more powerful to be an election official than it is to merely be a observer."
And LaRose said his focus on election integrity didn’t start when former president Trump started making his unfounded claims about the 2020 election being stolen.
"I always have concerns about voter fraud. I wouldn't call it widespread, but I would say that it's important that we keep it rare. voter fraud is rare, and we keep it rare by aggressively enforcing the law," LaRose said. "Voter fraud is so rare. That's like saying, carjackings are rare in my neighborhood. Thank God they are. But if one happens, I want the police to investigate it. And I want the perpetrator to face justice for doing that. It's the same thing with this."
LaRose's office has turned over evidence to county prosecutors of 597 non-citizens who were registered to vote and 138 people who appeared to have cast ballots. As of the general election last November, there were 7,988,132 registered voters in Ohio. While evidence of non-citizens registering and voting has been found nearly every time the rolls are audited, there’s never been a credible allegation of mass voter fraud in Ohio.
Experts say Ohio is likely to end up going for former president Trump, as it did in 2016 and 2020. But the US Senate race between incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown and northeast Ohio businessman Bernie Moreno will likely be close.
