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Secretary of State Jon Husted
Husted letter
to Obama on immigration actions
COLUMBUS – In a recent letter to President Barack Obama, Ohio Secretary
of State Jon Husted raised concerns that the President’s Immigration
Accountability Executive Actions may have implications on the integrity
of elections. These executive actions increase the potential that
non-citizens may illegally register and vote by granting millions more
access to the valid forms of identification used to register to vote.
“As chief elections official in a key swing state, I take very
seriously my responsibility to make it both easy to vote and hard to
cheat by ensuring that only eligible voters may participate in federal,
state and local elections,” Secretary Husted said. “Despite our
diligence in cleaning up Ohio’s voter registration rolls over the past
four years, the President’s executive actions have expanded a loophole
and made it more difficult for us to determine if potential registrants
meet the primary standard for voting – U.S. citizenship.”
Under federal law, any person with a valid Social Security number or
driver’s license can register to vote, provided they attest to their
eligibility. The recent executive actions would expand the risk
for illegal voter registrations in Ohio and other states by non-
citizen voters who have valid forms of identification and who willingly
or negligently affirm their eligibility to vote.
Should the executive actions remain in force, Secretary Husted is
asking that President Obama’s Administration provide state elections
officials real-time access to accurate, searchable, electronic
databases of non-citizens who have valid Social Security numbers so
that they may distinguish between citizens and lawfully-present
non-citizens.
In his letter to President Obama, Secretary Husted noted that the
ongoing debate over voter fraud and voter access has bred significant
hyperbole from across the political spectrum, eroding voter confidence.
After issuing the first statewide report of voter fraud and voter
suppression, and conducting a thorough review of Ohio’s voting rolls,
Secretary Husted has consistently maintained that while voter fraud
does exist, it is rare and he has taken many steps to modernize Ohio’s
elections system to prevent fraud in the future.
For example, following the 2012 Presidential Election and through a
data-sharing partnership with the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles,
Secretary Husted determined that in Ohio, 291 non-citizens were
registered to vote and 17 had actually cast ballots. The 17 were
referred for further investigation and potential prosecution and the
rest were sent letters to cancel their Ohio voter registrations.
“We have been careful to uncover the facts, to be transparent with the
data, and then to take reasonable steps to improve our elections system
and boost voter confidence,” Secretary Husted said. “The President’s
executive actions have the potential to roll back progress we have made
in Ohio. It is my hope that he will work with us to minimize their
impact on the integrity of our elections.”
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