COLUMBUS — Ohio election officials and a longtime state voting expert pushed back Friday on national claims about foreign access to voter information, saying the state’s decentralized election system and routine maintenance of voter rolls help protect the integrity of elections.
State says process shields elections despite national concerns
Following a primetime address by President Donald Trump that included claims about foreign acquisition of U.S. voter files, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the Buckeye State does its job when it comes to maintaining secure elections. LaRose’s office noted Ohio is among 10 states that processed their complete voter lists through the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system, a tool used to flag noncitizens and deceased registrants.
Officials emphasized that Ohio’s voter data are public records under state law, meaning the information may be accessible to journalists, political campaigns and others. That accessibility, they said, is part of the checks and balances around voter registration and turnout verification.
Local structure and routine checks cited as safeguards
Terry Casey, a former chair of the Ohio Secretary of State Board of Voting Machine Examiners who now appears as a Republican strategist on local television, said the system’s county-based administration adds protective layers. Casey pointed to the role of county election boards, cross-checks with death records and periodic list maintenance as reasons Ohio can have confidence in its procedures.
"Nothing's ever perfect when it involves human beings. But we've got a lot of safeguards and the system works well in Ohio because it's based in each of the 88 counties," Casey said.
Casey also noted that while international actors could view publicly available registration records, that does not equate to control over election machinery or vote counts. He urged a posture of vigilance — "trust and verify" — while asserting the state has long worked across party lines to build protections into election law.
Recent voter-roll removals and what they show
State officials highlighted recent list maintenance work as an example of those safeguards in action. After running its rolls through the SAVE system, Ohio identified and removed registrants who were deceased and those who were noncitizens. The state reported nearly 60,000 deceased registrants and 769 noncitizens removed from voter lists.
| Category | Number removed |
|---|---|
| Deceased registrants | ~60,000 |
| Noncitizen registrants | 769 |
County election officials typically receive death information from government records and take steps to remove names from local lists. Casey cautioned that records can lag when a person dies out of state or paperwork isn’t filed promptly, underscoring that no system is flawless but that multiple mechanisms exist to catch errors.
Why this matters for Ohio voters and officials
The discussion comes as election security and the integrity of voter rolls remain politically charged issues nationwide. For county boards and the secretary of state’s office, maintaining public confidence is a practical obligation: accurate rolls affect polling administration, resource allocation and the integrity of turnout figures.
- Decentralized administration: Elections are run in Ohio’s 88 counties rather than by a single central system.
- Routine list maintenance: State use of the SAVE system identified tens of thousands of records for removal.
- Transparency vs. vulnerability: Public access to registration records aids oversight but can be cited as a concern about external viewing.
State officials say those elements together help preserve the reliability of Ohio’s election infrastructure and provide avenues for correction when anomalies appear. They also called for continued cooperation across party lines and vigilance by election administrators to keep the system functioning.
As national debate continues, Ohio’s approach highlights the trade-offs between transparency and perceived exposure. County boards, state election officials and security partners will remain central to addressing those issues in the months ahead.
