Secretary LaRose highlights nearly $100M in uncollected fines in call for reform of Ohio Elections Commission
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose called Wednesday for legislative reform of the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC), a 50-year-old panel of bipartisan political appointees responsible for enforcing Ohio’s election laws.
In a letter to Senate President Rob McColley, Secretary LaRose asked lawmakers to improve the OEC’s oversight and authority as the Senate considers the state’s biennial operating budget.
“The commission has become an increasingly toothless and inconsistent shell of what it was intended to be,” said Secretary LaRose. “To date, it has issued nearly $100 million in fines that have so far gone uncollected, sending a terrible message that you can break the law and get away with it. There is no reason to have campaign finance laws in Ohio if we cannot meaningfully enforce them, yet that is precisely where the commission has left us.”
Secretary LaRose appealed to lawmakers as the Ohio Senate considers reform of the commission in the state’s biennial operating budget. In a letter to Senate President Rob McColley, he called out the commission’s inaction on major referrals from his office that have gone unanswered, particularly those related to the House Bill 6 corruption scandal in 2021.
LaRose said he does not support proposals to abolish the commission but believes its oversight and authority should be improved. Earlier this year, he submitted a proposal to the General Assembly that would implement the following changes to the OEC:
• Creating an Ohio Election Integrity Commission.
• Expanding the body’s oversight beyond campaign finance law to include fine-levying authority for certain election crimes that can be difficult to prosecute, such as ballot harvesting, double voting, petition fraud, voter registration fraud, loitering or illegally electioneering at polling places, and noncitizen registration and voting.
• Raising the qualifications for commission members to include legal or equivalent experience in campaign finance and election law.
• Preventing partisan appointments and staff guidance from undermining the commission’s commitment to enforcing Ohio law fairly and consistently.
• Cutting bureaucratic red tape and reducing costs by creating an expedited review process.
Secretary LaRose opposes a House-proposed plan to decentralize campaign finance oversight by giving enforcement authority to Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections, arguing that such a move would lead to 88 different legal standards.
“Prosecuting election crimes at the county level is challenging enough,” Secretary LaRose added. “These board members, hard-working as they are, often serve as local political party chairs. They should not be placed in the awkward, unsolicited position of policing their own candidates, nor are they staffed, equipped, or trained to manage these complex cases. We should absolutely debate the critical reforms needed at the Ohio Elections Commission, but we need to improve it, not abolish and decentralize its authority.”
Secretary LaRose applauded the House of Representatives for beginning the debate over OEC reform in their version of the state operating budget and asked the Senate to continue the push toward a practical solution as the budget moves through their chamber.
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