A panel intended to hold hearings on violations of elections and campaign laws in Ohio met for its first session Friday, when it approved its operating rules. The Ohio Election Integrity Commission includes four members appointed by legislative leaders and a chair picked by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
This commission will hear appeals of cases investigated by the secretary of state’s election integrity unit and decided by the secretary of state.
“Our mission here is to adjudicate claims regarding the election laws and campaign finance laws," said interim chair Republican former Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell as he opened the meeting. O'Donnell, appointed the temporary chair by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, will lead the panel for 90 days until former U.S. Attorney D. Michael Crites can join it. Crites is already on another state board, and a law that overturns a ban on serving on more than one state board or commission takes effect in March.
The Ohio Election Integrity Commission's administrator is James Wernecke, a criminal investigator who works for the Elections Integrity Unit. That unit is part of the secretary of state's office and was created last year by Republican lawmakers who admit that voter fraud is very rare.
"There are allegations that continue to come into our integrity unit that involve campaign violations," Wernecke told the commission. "There's also allegations of ballot harvesting. There's also allegations that our unit would handle as far as noncitizen voters. There's also those types of things—whether it's identity theft, whether it's using someone else's identity to vote, voting in multiple states—those are the type of matters that the Public Integrity Unit continues to investigate."
The Ohio Elections Integrity Commission is also part of the secretary of state’s office and replaces the independent Ohio Elections Commission, which lawmakers disbanded in the state budget as too slow with decisions and too weak with its fines.
The members of the Ohio Election Integrity Commission are:
- Karl Kerschner, appointed by Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon)
- Eben (Sandy) O. McNair, IV, appointed by Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood)
- Matthew Brown, appointed by Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima)
- John Lyall, appointed by House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati)
Kerschner and Lyall were on the Ohio Elections Commission when it was dissolved. Former Gov. John Kasich had appointed Crites to the Ohio Elections Commission in 2018, and he chaired it in 2021 and 2022.
