LaRose leans towards elections, denying extremists again, pulling Ohio out of database integrity program

See what the “fairness of the election” scammers doand not what they say. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has been talking a lot about election fraud lately because he’s posing for the US Senate election. LaRose, like every other MAGA snowy Republican, knows that the GOP base believes in the myth of massive vote fraud, so he speaks as if it’s more rampant than extremely rare.

Even though LaRose brags about the official Ohio election, he can’t stop complaining about potential cases of electoral fraud in the state, which, by his own admission, are infinitesimal. He continues to confirm the (baseless) voting suspicions sown by election deniers, using the code MAGA (“election integrity”) to reinforce the notion that remedies are needed.

But more important than what LaRose said to curry favor with right-wing extremists or congressional clowns “caucus of fair elections” is what the Ohio Electoral Commissioner did to threaten the integrity of our state elections that matter. On the Friday night news (to minimize media attention), LaRose’s office announced that Ohio was phasing out the excellent data-sharing tool available to states (across the political spectrum) to detect and prevent voter fraud.

Mr. Election Integrity himself has joined a handful of other Republican states in abruptly withdrawing from an anti-election fraud initiative (recently fired by far-right conspiracy freaks), which he called “one of the best anti-fraud tools we have” last month. A bipartisan network of more than 30 member states, operating in relative obscurity for more than a decade, operates a sophisticated and secure voter database called the Electronic Registration Clearinghouse, or ERIC for short.

It is a robust data matching tool that allows red, blue and purple states to mark voters who may have died or moved to another state. Voter participation data also helps states identify and ultimately hold accountable people who vote in multiple states. In other words, this interstate collaboration helps states share voter registration information with improve the credibility of their voter lists for clean elections.

In addition to improving the accuracy of voter rolls—keeping rolls up to date to make voting easier and harder to scam—(because LaRose loves to chat about Ohio’s electoral system), ERIC also helps states better identify, contact, and offer eligible but unregistered citizens the opportunity to register to vote. But LaRose, once a proponent of voter engagement programs to get more Ohioans to vote, insisted on making a choice. outside this requirement.

Before he pulled out of a network set up to improve election security and increase registered voters, LaRose chafed that if the state’s partners who collectively fund and manage the nation’s database system didn’t agree to make certain “reforms,” ​​Ohio was leaving. On Friday, this came after ERIC continued to encourage unregistered eligible voters to register to vote.

LaRose’s politically motivated move was a victory for a disinformation campaign and a defeat for accurate voter files in Ohio, which had no national voter registration center. He and other outgoing Republican secretaries of state repeated the same partisan talking points to justify cutting off their noses to hurt their face with a reduction in their ability to fight fraud.

All GOP election leaders have cited (without evidence) ERIC’s “partisan tendencies,” its failure to enact certain “reforms” that would “strengthen confidence in its work,” and a suspicious “security protocol.” Do Nofor a minute MAGA buy this spin.

There is only one explanation for why Republican-led states, including Ohio, chose to abandon the most efficient way to compare voter data across states. Here they are: they caved in To far-right conspiracy theories put forward by election deniers to undermine an organization committed to fact, not fiction.

Early last year, fringe conservative media launched a sustained disinformation attack against ERIC, falsely portraying it as part of a liberal plot to steal the election results. The hoax has been fanned by an ex-president awaiting criminal charges.

Out of nowhere, this little-known association – with an apparent track record of dealing with real-life election fraud – has been bombarded with false claims online that it is a Democratic voter registration vehicle funded by George Soros, a liberal billionaire and philanthropist, blamed on the MAGA conspirators. All.

Trump has amplified the multi-state Fair Vote Cluster lie on his social media platform, urging red states to get out of the “terrible voter registration system that ‘boosts the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up.” Republican secretaries of state (especially LaRose and three others seeking Trump’s approval) have fallen into the MAGA formation.

A few weeks ago, LaRose endorsed ERIC as “one of the best anti-fraud tools we have when it comes to actually catching people trying to vote in multiple states when it comes to keeping our voter rolls accurate by deleting those who leave.” states”.

That’s what the chief election organizer in Ohio said. What he did followed Trump’s order to leave the trusted system that since 2012 has promoted election integrity, ensured the accuracy of voter rolls, and combated election fraud.

But to get a seat in the U.S. Senate, this “fair election” scammer will be standing in public with the “stolen election” mob at the CPAC, sucking up to a pro-Trump think tank to craft a game-changing Ohio voter data bill (rolled up last week as Legislative Trojan Horse) hail the passage of the most restrictive voter identification law in the country and push the law to end direct democracy through citizen-driven amendments.

Forget what he says. See what LaRose does in extreme conditions.