COLUMBUS — Six people have been indicted for voting illegally in past elections, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced on Tuesday.
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Those six people came from near Columbus and Cleveland and were lawful residents of the United States, but they were not citizens.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, seven people had their cases presented to a grand jury, but one man wasn’t indicted because they thought someone stole his identity to vote.
Yost added that illegally voting is a felony with up to 18 months in prison and five years probation. The six people indicted will start to make their court appearances in November.
“I think this should enable everybody to take a deep breath and be more confident that our elections are, in fact, safe and secure,” Yost said.
The Attorney General added that six people is a small number, but it comes from a pool of nearly 600 cases. Of those, 138 involved someone who had voted improperly while the rest are just for being registered to vote without casting a ballot. That distinction is important.
“This office has the authority to prosecute improper voting cases,” Yost said but noted they don’t have the authority to prosecute registration cases.
A change was made in 2022, which requires everyone voting to present a photo ID. The change has Yost thinking this problem will decrease for the upcoming election.
“This is a problem that exists with some of these old cases that will, I don’t think, be an issue in the 2024 cycle,” Yost said.
The investigation is ongoing for the remaining cases outside of the six indictments.
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