LaRose names James Wernecke to lead Ohio Election Integrity Commission
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced today the appointment of longtime law enforcement veteran and state criminal investigator James Wernecke to lead the new Ohio Election Integrity Commission.
Wernecke will serve as administrator of the newly formed commission, which begins operation on January 1, 2026. Until then, he is overseeing the transition of the Ohio Elections Commission to the Ohio Election Integrity Commission, established earlier this year by the Ohio General Assembly in the biennial state operating budget. He brings to the role nearly four decades of experience leading criminal investigations, from the Ohio State Highway Patrol to the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.
Beginning his patrol career as a state trooper in 1990, Wernecke worked his way up to the position of captain with the patrol’s statewide investigative unit. In that role, he helped the patrol’s senior leadership reorganize the unit’s structure by updating its policies and procedures, improving operating guidelines and protocols and adding enhanced accountability training.
He previously managed 110 criminal investigators and supervisors across the state and directed a team of state and federal investigators within a task force operating out of the Ohio Inspector General’s Office. The criminal investigations he oversaw focused on public corruption involving allegations of theft and ethics violations. Wernecke most recently served as director of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation’s Special Investigations Department, where he was responsible for leading a team of 125 workers compensation fraud investigators across the state.
“We’re grateful and honored that Jim has agreed to take on this important new mission,” said Secretary LaRose. “We’ve been asked by the legislature to dramatically improve the integrity and credibility of the Ohio Elections Commission, and Jim has the background and reputation to begin doing that on day one. Our election laws need to be taken seriously, both by the citizens expected to uphold them and the law enforcement professionals charged with enforcing them. Jim has the right experience to lead that effort.”
Background: The Ohio General Assembly voted in June of this year to abolish the Ohio Elections Commission amid widespread concerns about its ineffectiveness. In a May 2025 letter to legislative leaders, Secretary LaRose wrote, “The commission has become an increasingly toothless and inconsistent shell of what it was intended to be. 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 to include an overhaul of the commission in the state’s biennial operating budget, which they subsequently did. The new Ohio Election Integrity Commission will have expanded authority to recommend fines issued by the Secretary of State or pursue criminal referrals for prosecution, and the commission’s new members must be an attorney or have experience in election administration. The commission also has expanded oversight beyond campaign finance law to include offenses such as ballot harvesting, double voting, petition fraud, voter registration fraud, and illegal voting.
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