Battle for the Ballot
Lobbyist accused of paying $15K to spy on effort to repeal corrupt utility bailout
A lobbyist with ties to the state's top Republicans in 2019 paid $15,000 for inside information about a campaign to repeal $1.3 billion in utility subsidies that were later determined to be corruptly passed, according to an FBI agent's testimony Monday. The agent also said that Secretary of State Frank LaRose wanted to meet with leaders of Akron-based FirstEnergy — the company that funded the vast majority 0f the scheme — while Attorney General Dave Yost became angered by the heavy-handed tactics used by opponents of the repeal.
LaRose says Dems might wreck election integrity, touts Trump, who’s suspected of election fraud
Ohio’s top elections official on Sunday tweeted that if Democrats win in Ohio they might undermine secure elections. Then he boasted of an endorsement from someone who is himself under investigation for possible election fraud. It might demonstrate the needle Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is trying to thread as he runs on a […]
Ohio law would tighten voter requirements, require photo ID
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. A proposed law would require Ohio voters to show photo identification […]
Ohio Secretary of State says he didn’t call for Supreme Court chief’s ouster
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday denied that he had called for the impeachment of Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor after she had repeatedly ruled against LaRose and the rest of her fellow Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission. LaRose’s comments come four days after he told a group of Union […]
DeWine reappoints utility commissioner who didn’t do much to protect FirstEnergy customers
Regulatory reform? DeWine reappoints utility commissioner who didn't do much to protect FirstEnergy customers.
Ohio’s top election official slams “liberal media” over CBS Ukraine reporting
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has his hands full right now. He’s part of a seven-member commission whose struggles to come up with legislative and congressional maps have resulted in an order to explain in person why they shouldn’t be held in contempt. And in the absence of maps, the state’s top elections official […]
Another question about DeWine conflicts in Ohio redistricting
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine has said he doesn’t have a conflict sitting in judgment of a case involving a redistricting commission on which his father sits. That’s because the father, according to his son, is acting in only an official capacity. It’s a claim that some ethics experts have bluntly rejected. The claim […]
RNC calls Capitol violence “legitimate.” Do Ohio statewides agree?
The top elected Republican tried this week to give his colleagues cover to disagree with a party claim that the violent attack on Congress on Jan. 1. 2021 was "legitimate political discourse." Most Ohio's statewide elected officials have been less definite.
Trump’s rhetoric on election integrity unfolds in courtrooms, tweets
And it’s sowing the ground for a contested election See you in court! It is a threat President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign have lobbed — sometimes verbatim — at states across the country this year. Last week, the campaign threatened litigation in Pennsylvania if it wasn’t allowed to observe activity inside satellite election […]
List maintenance or voter purges: How the practice of maintaining voter lists became so polarized
In the last decade, millions of registered voters across the country have been removed from voter rolls. In 2019, Ohio removed more than 460,000 voter registration files from its list. Georgia removed 313,000 people from its rolls in October 2019 alone, and in Michigan, from 2011 to 2018, 1.2 million voters were removed from voter […]
Supreme Court ruling on Voting Rights Act opened floodgates for new restrictions
It hadn’t even been a day since the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled one of the pillars of voting rights in America, and North Carolina lawmakers weren’t wasting any time. Republican legislators had been contemplating a bill that would require photo identification to vote. The bill had plenty of support, but it had spent the past […]
Voter fraud myth persists despite constant failure to prove claims
Trump shifts focus of his accusations from illegal immigrants to mail-in voting TOPEKA, Kansas — Scott Moore had never heard of the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck program before election officials in Kansas and Florida exposed his personal information, along with 944 other Kansas voters. The now-defunct Crosscheck was designed to help county clerks clean up […]