Free Republic

Ohio detected and thwarted an election-related cyber attack earlier this month, the state’s elections chief said. Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the “relatively unsophisticated” hacking attempt on Nov. 5, which was Election Day, originated in Panama but was traced to a Russian-owned company. LaRose told The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday that the would-be attackers were looking around for vulnerabilities in his office’s website. “They are poking around for soft spots,” LaRose said. The ultimate goal of such attacks is disrupting and undermining the credibility of elections, but LaRose said Ohio’s election results are safe because neither the election machines...

The United States must have an “absolute zero tolerance policy” on illegal immigration, Republican Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno said during a candidate forum this week in the Buckeye State, differentiating himself from his challengers.The forum featured three Republican Senate candidates — Moreno, GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and State Sen. Matt Dolan (R) — all vying for Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) seat.During the forum, Moreno — who legally migrated from Columbia — listed eliminating illegal immigration as one of the three biggest issues facing the business community, thereby identifying it as something that Congress should promptly address. Further,...

Republicans are gearing up for a competitive primary as they look to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in next year’s closely watched Ohio Senate race. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) became the latest Republican to announce his candidacy earlier this week, joining a crowded field that includes businessman Bernie Moreno and state Sen. Matt Dolan (R). Brown, a third-term incumbent, is seen as one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection next year, and the race could be key to deciding which party wins control of the upper chamber in the 2024 election. “It’s going to...

Determined to use their oversight authority to ensure election integrity, House Republicans are deploying dozens of trained observers to key races around the country while dispatching letters putting federal and state officials on notice to look for any shenanigans in the midterms. The effort led by Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, includes investigating how federal agencies are implementing President Joe Biden's executive order instructing the U.S. government to expand voter registration, along with the training and deployment of House staff as observers under the authority of Congress. Davis wrote at least one state election...

In a news release put out Monday, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced the discovery of 75 people who voted twice in the 2020 election. Those cases have been turned over to the Ohio attorney general and county prosecutors. In each case, Sec. LaRose is accusing the individuals of voting in Ohio as well as another state. The investigation included people who also cast ballots in one of the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Texas, Washington, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin. “The only way to strengthen the confidence of the voters is by working every day to earn their...

An elections conspiracy theorist will be able to challenge Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose as a political independent in the Nov. 8 election after all after the Ohio Supreme Court voted Tuesday to restore her candidacy, overturning an earlier decision from LaRose’s office. In a 4-2 opinion, the court ruled that LaRose improperly failed to accept nine signatures – eight from Cuyahoga County and one from Columbiana County – that Terpsehore “Tore” Maras gathered after a July 5 deadline that LaRose had ordered administratively, but before a July 15 date that appears in Ohio law. The court ordered LaRose...

Most state agencies run by independently elected officials aren’t participating in Gov. Mike DeWine’s enhanced coronavirus vaccination incentive program through which state workers can get up to $1,000 for getting the shot. Spokespeople for Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, House Speaker Bob Cupp, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Auditor Keith Faber, Treasurer Robert Sprague and Attorney General Dave Yost all said they are not planning to opt into the program, announced by DeWine last month. All, like DeWine, are Republicans. However, the Supreme Court of Ohio is participating, as is the Ohio Court of Claims, said Melissa Vince, a spokeswoman...

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, state auditor Keith Faber, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose are considering offering and adopting a redistricting map ahead of the 2022 midterm elections that would be overly beneficial and lopsided toward helping Democrats retain their U.S. House majority, Breitbart News has learned. Two senior Republican officials briefed on the proposal before its expected introduction next week told Breitbart News that DeWine, Faber, and LaRose are considering drawing a number of pro-Trump Republicans into Democrat-leaning districts as part of retaliation against former President Donald Trump, who the three establishment GOP leaders dislike. The two senior Republicans...

Democratic lawmakers want to increase voter drop box access throughout the state of Ohio, proposing to install hundreds of boxes for future elections. State Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, and Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, believe the additional drop boxes will make voting more convenient for Ohioans seeking to cast absentee ballots. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who oversees Ohio elections, restricted each county to having one drop box apiece during the 2020 General Election — and is directing the 88 county boards of elections to follow the same rule in the upcoming May election. House Bill 209 would significantly increase the...

The Ohio Democratic Party reportedly filed a lawsuit last week over Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s (R) planned removal of hundreds of thousands of voters who have not voted for the past several elections from the rolls. In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, state Democrats asked for a restraining order blocking the purge, set to take effect on Friday, and requiring LaRose to instead manually review the voting history of each individual in question, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The plaintiffs also called for an independent probe into how the state updates voter rolls to remove...

Ohio Democrats filed a lawsuit Friday attempting to stop Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s plan to remove more than 200,000 voters from registration rolls next week for sitting out too many elections. State Democratic Chairman David Pepper said that after recent revelations showing “thousands of errors in voters purged ... it makes no sense for the secretary of state to push forward with the purge.” The 17-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus seeks a restraining order blocking the Sept. 6 purge and asks that LaRose be ordered to conduct “a manual review of the voting history of...