By Wayne Gates
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose visited the Brown County Board of Elections on July 16.
He told board members and staff that he anticipates a very busy 18 months ahead.
“I expect the 2020 election to be the most contentious election that any one of us have ever seen. We know that the stakes are high and all eyes will be on Ohio,” LaRose said.
“We as elections officials are on the front lines of something very consequential over the next year and a half. I believe we are going to rise to the occasion and I believe that we will have really strong voter turnout.”
He said that one way to ensure a good turnout is for elections officials to work to build and maintain confidence in the voting process.
“We need to be the ones who are pushing back on the misinformation that comes from a variety of sources,” LaRose said.
“It comes intentionally from foreign adversaries that want to make people distrust our elections, it comes from politicians that are using it to excite people’s emotions for political reasons, it comes from friends and relatives of ours who forward or share garbage on social media that has no basis in fact.”
LaRose said that all of that activity has a cumulative effect.
“The net result of that is that it corrodes the trust that people have and it corroded their willingness to participate.”
LaRose went into more detail on the three main sources of what he called misinformation about the voting process, starting with foreign adversaries of the United States.
“They know that they can’t change the way we tabulate elections and change the count. But what they can do is try to cause confusion and spread misinformation,” LaRose said,
He continued with details about how it would be impossible to “hack” an election in Ohio, including the fact that voting and tabulation machines are not ever connected to the internet and that it is a felony to do so.
LaRose also discussed pre and post election procedures like testing machines for logic and accuracy before and election and doing a post election audit of their performance.
He also discussed the human factor of Republicans, Democrats and poll workers all working to ensure a fair and accurate process.
LaRose also discussed how some politicians are putting self-interest over that of their constituents.
“The exaggeration that you hear on both the right and the left is so damaging. You hear partisan voices on the right say there is widespread voter fraud. That’s not true. You will also hear partisan voices on the left claim that there is widespread systemic voter suppression. That’s also not true,” LaRose said.
“To be clear, neither of those is ever acceptable. Reasonable, rational people should be able to agree that we will never tolerate fraud and that we will never tolerate suppression.”
He also asked ordinary citizens to help reduce misinformation about the election process.
“Before you forward some e-mail or share some garbage on social media, get the facts. Learn about elections. What you will find is that it’s a really good process,” LaRose said.
When asked what he was taking away from his visit to Brown County, LaRose said “This county is leaning forward in how it’s modernizing technology, in getting the word out the public by doing creating things and by investing in new equipment. That’s the kind of dedication I see everywhere I go in Ohio.”
He also had praise for the local board of elections and its staff.
“You all do such a good job of running elections that people have almost been able to take it for granted. We need to tell the story about how well we run elections,” LaRose said.
“The true work of elections happens at 88 boards of elections like this. These are members of your community that come to work every day and do the work of elections. This work matters.”
LaRose has set a goal to visit the boards of elections in all 88 Ohio counties.