When Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s latest effort to prosecute voter fraud last week showed once again that voter fraud is vanishingly rare in the Buckeye State — turning up a handful of indictments out of hundreds of case recommendations, representing a minuscule percentage of the millions upon millions of votes cast in recent Ohio elections — he called it a “bogus narrative” on social media.

Ohio’s local election workers are overworked, underpaid and strained by conspiratorial attacks, and the state could be doing more to leave politics out of the election process, according to a voting rights group who talked with local election administrators.

Since initially flagging hundreds of alleged noncitizens on Ohio’s voter rolls, Secretary of State Frank LaRose has begun sending letters to those who are, in fact, citizens. The letter congratulates them “on being an active participant in our democracy!” and encourages them to make sure their records are up to date.

A federal judge this week blocked part of a sweeping 2022 Ohio elections law that placed sharp restrictions on who may return an absentee ballot. Under that law, only certain close relatives can assist someone with absentee ballots. Anyone outside that narrow list would face a fourth-degree felony if they were caught with someone else’s ballot.

A proposed anti-gerrymandering amendment in Ohio that would remove politicians from the redistricting process in favor of a citizens commission has gathered enough signatures to proceed to voters on the November ballot.

Voting rights advocacy organizations are calling on the Ohio Secretary of State to create consistency within the county boards of elections when it comes to voter registration challenges.

Two potentially consequential election measures got their first hearing last week in the Ohio House, but it’s not clear the problems those measures seek to address are truly problems in the first place.

Legislation in the Ohio House and Senate would make sweeping changes to the way Ohioans vote and how those votes are counted. Despite sterling post-election audits in Ohio and the arrival last year of strict new photo voter ID requirements, backers insist more must be done to secure the state’s elections.

Ohio’s gerrymandered maps take voting power away from Black communities, fair map advocates said this week on a media call. 

In a surprise move, the Ohio House decided not to take up legislation to ensure President Joe Biden appears on the November ballot in Ohio.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday that his office has initiated a routine annual audit of the statewide voter registration database.

It’s been about a year since Ohio’s photo voter ID law took effect, and the organization All Voting Is Local wanted to see how its requirements have impacted provisional voting. What it found was a sharp increase in rejections due to lack of ID. Compared to recent years, the share rejected over identification more than tripled.

Ohio’s Primary Election is less than two weeks away, and many voters have already taken advantage of the state’s absentee and early voting opportunities to cast their ballots.

Two weeks ago early voting began in Ohio’s primary election. In two weeks more, the election will be decided. So far, county officials report turnout has been steady, but the figures have been far from overwhelming. By the end of last week, just shy of 60,000 voters had cast a ballot in-person and another 37,000 returned absentee ballots by mail or at their county board.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is announcing to voters that early voting starts Wednesday, Feb. 21 for the upcoming March primary election.