As early voting begins, election security in Ohio emphasized

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- With a high-profile election in less than 30 days, there is some heightened rhetoric about election security, but Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Ohioans have nothing to worry about. 

“Ohio does it right and I think Ohioans know that,” he said. 

LaRose emphasized elections in Ohio are run by bipartisan teams at all 88 county boards of elections and he said not only do they ensure the elections are safe, but also support their poll workers. 

“We will not tolerate people ever mistreating our poll workers,” he said. “That's not acceptable.” 

Watch: As early voting begins, election security in Ohio emphasized

LaRose said that since 2020, the state has been training poll workers to deescalate situations if needed. 

“In the first few seconds of an interaction, you can either turn the temperature up or you can turn it down,” he said. 

LaRose said, for example, if someone walks into a polling place with campaign attire, which is prohibited by state law, poll workers can handle that in one of two ways. 

“They could say, ‘Hey, you, get out of here,’” he said. “That would be the wrong way to do it. Or they could say, ‘Hey, I see you're excited about Election Day. We really are, too. But it's my job to make sure that the law is enforced, and the law says that you can't wear campaign attire in a in a polling location. So, we're just going to ask you, maybe if you'd head back out, put a coat on, or turn that inside out or whatever else,’” he said. “So that's the right way to deal with those kinds of tense situations that don't raise the temperature on it.” 

There is also a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes like updating voter registration rolls. This year, LaRose said he removed 600 non-citizens who registered. Some Ohio lawmakers said they are concerned about that process. 

“He wants to scare people that are legally allowed to vote in this country from not voting,” Ohio Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) said. “That's all this is, is a scare tactic.” 

“They're the ones that are hyperbolizing an otherwise pretty mundane administrative process, and they're doing so for their own political purposes and that's irresponsible,” LaRose said. 

LaRose is also urging the legislature to pass a bill giving the secretary’s office the authority to verify citizenship up front, instead of going through the process once someone is registered. 

“It's actually better for everybody involved,” he said. “It's better for the election officials. It's also better for the individuals involved because if someone does become registered to vote as a non-citizen and actually cast a ballot, they're likely committing a felony.” 

“It’s not illegal to register to vote, it’s only illegal to cast a vote when you’re not eligible to do it,” DeMora said. 

Either way, LaRose and other elected officials are encouraging all Ohioans to double check their voter registration and make sure all information is up to date. Prospective voters have until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 7 to register online or until 9 p.m. to register in person. 

If you wait until Monday night to register, LaRose said you may not be in the system right away. 

“Because it does require some checking by the boards of elections,” he said. “Of course, they verify that information and then they have to manually enter that data.” 

Even if you do wait until the last minute to register, then show up Tuesday morning to vote and are not yet verified, you will still be able to cast a ballot. 

“They would most likely require you to cast a provisional ballot, which means it would get put aside until they had the chance to verify it just because of the lag time between doing it at the last minute and showing up at the first minute,” he said. “So probably not a good plan if that's what you're thinking about doing.”