Butler County Board of Elections cooperating with investigation of potential election law violations
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose referred 20 counties to their local prosecutors for suspected election law violations, including Butler County.
Butler County is among 20 Ohio counties being accused of “suspected election law violations” by the Secretary of State.
In a press release last week, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that he had “formally referred evidence of suspected election law violations to numerous county prosecutors,” including in Butler County. According to the press release, the violations included issues with petition forms to grant minor party status, fraudulent voter registration forms from canvassers and petition forms regarding the constitutional amendment on redistricting which will appear on November’s ballot.
Nicole Unzicker, director of the Butler County Board of Elections, said the board is working with Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser to provide additional information. The violations in Butler County relate to petition signers, Unzicker said.
“We will be meeting with [the prosecutor’s office] and reviewing the information that was provided to them and working with them to work out any details that they need additional information on and assist them in any way that we can,” Unzicker said.
Data from Common Cause Ohio shows that Citizens Not Politicians, the group behind the redistricting amendment ballot measure, collected more than 13,000 valid signatures in Butler County. The county also had more than 5,000 invalid signatures, which put it in line with the average of 28% invalid signatures statewide.
The Ohio Ballot Board recently passed language to describe the proposed amendment on November’s ballot, but Citizens Not Politicians has filed a lawsuit calling the language “biased, inaccurate, deceptive and unconstitutional,” according to the Associated Press. The amendment was proposed after the Ohio Supreme Court struck down seven sets of district maps which it found were unfairly gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
