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    • Dead Ohio Man’s Indictment Is Part of Disturbing Anti-Voting Ploy
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    Dead Ohio Man’s Indictment Is Part of Disturbing Anti-Voting Ploy

    Sakege Posted on

    In a twist, LaRose and Yost’s stunt demonstrates that, aside from six exceptions among millions and millions of votes cast dating back to at least 2008, only Americans vote in Ohio.

    Submission Editorial Board
    | Columbus’s Office

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    • Ohio Attorney General Yost held a press conference two weeks before Election Day to say that a whopping six legal noncitizens from Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s list of 600 names had been charged.
    • Among those charged with charges he voted for years ago was a dead man.
    • Yost and LaRose’s disgraceful actions are part of a disturbing pattern.

    They hold what should be the two least partisan offices in Ohio, but our influence-chasing attorney general and secretary of state are anything but when it comes to your right to vote.

    Dave Yost and Frank LaRose hit the bottom of the barrel during a witch hunt designed to further tarnish the reputation of the two-party electoral system that LaRose celebrated as one of the most secure in the country before the contentious 2020 election.

    Republicans and ardent Donald Trump devotees with higher political aspirations attempted to prosecute a dead Cleveland-area man for voting illegally in the 2014, 2016 and 2018 elections.

    Its failure was more than embarrassing. It was an inappropriate attempt to intimidate voters.

    Don’t let this and other antics (LaRose’s recent rules prohibiting people from placing absentee ballots in drop boxes for family members and people with disabilities included) keep you or your loved ones from exercising the legal right to vote.

    Democracy depends on your participation.

    Processing beyond the grave

    The six accusations attracted national attention and a list of headlines that included “Six Non-Citizens Charged with Allegedly Voting in Ohio (Which Democrats STILL Insist Never Happens)” The federalist and “Ohio Grand Juries Indict Six Noncitizens for Allegedly Voting Illegally in Past Elections” fox news.

    It was a reckless act on the part of Yost, who has unofficially run for governor for several years now.

    In what appears to be his own October surprise, Yost called a press conference two weeks before Election Day to announce that the great Six legal noncitizens on the list of 600 names LaRose previously provided had been accused of voting in past elections without U.S. citizenship.

    To be perfectly clear, only legal American citizens should be able to vote.

    In a twist, LaRose and Yost’s stunt demonstrates that, aside from six exceptions among millions and millions of votes cast dating back to at least 2008, only Americans vote in Ohio.

    LaRose and Yost know this despite their actions.

    Still, the over-the-top, camera-ready brouhaha came despite Yost’s own admission that such illegal voting “is not an out-of-control problem” here. In fact, it wasn’t even a drop in the water. the state has almost 12 million residents – about 8 million of whom are registered to vote.

    Three Franklin County residents, including a 78-year-old Columbus woman, and the deceased Ramesh Patela 68-year-old man from North Royalton, were among the six people charged. Patel died in December 2022.

    If he were not dead, Patel would face a fourth-degree felony charge that carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison.

    If reassuring the public was Yost’s goal, why so much reckless strutting about years-old fourth-degree felony cases? A 35-year-old legal permanent resident of Columbus allegedly voted illegally in 2008 and 2020.

    Seeking indictments for crimes is one thing, but why—without even taking the step of confirming that all suspects are among the living—intentionally and unnecessarily drag people into the national circus that is the immigration debate?

    Why hyperbolic poison?

    “If you are not a US citizen, it is illegal to vote, whether you think you can do it or not, you will be held accountable,” Yost says as part of a Press release.

    Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley apparently sees the hypocrisy.

    “This is one of the biggest examples of fiscal overreach I have ever witnessed,” O’Malley said in a statement published by The Dispatch. “The practice of charging the deceased is draconian. That is not how we would have handled this case in my office.”

    High interest in the ‘immigrant’ vote at the national level

    This is not the first time Yost has targeted immigrants in recent months.

    After Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, made false claims about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Yost pushed the debunked claims on social media and “led his office to the investigation legal avenues to prevent the federal government from sending unlimited numbers of immigrants to Ohio communities.”

    All that said, Yost is not the only one who has attacked so-called illegal voters, and he is not the worst.

    The League of United Latin American Citizens in August he accused the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to use its Election Integrity Unit to attack Latino voter activists in an attempt to suppress voting rights.

    “It’s evident through his (Paxton’s) patterns of lawsuits, raids, searches and seizures that he is trying to prevent Latinos from voting,” said Roman Palomares, the league’s national president, according to USA TODAY.

    Paxton sued the Biden administration on October 23, alleging that the government was not providing necessary help in evaluating the citizenship status of some of Texas’ registered voters, Reuters reported.

    LaRose filed a similar lawsuit alleging that the Department of Homeland Security is illegally withholding citizenship records.

    Get ready to vote

    The episode involving the six Ohio residents is just the latest attempt to confuse voters and suppress votes.

    Includes changes to Identification requirements since Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud before and after the 2020 election.

    LaRose and other Board of Elections members manipulated election language for the 2023 reproductive health amendment and the Citizens, Not Politicians, Number 1 redistricting amendments on the Nov. 5 ballot.

    These tactics should not stop you from going to the polls.

    Your vote matters. LaRose and Yost wouldn’t be working so hard to intimidate you if it weren’t like that.

    This editorial was written by Dispatch Opinion and Community Engagement editor Amelia Robinson on behalf of the editorial board of The Shipment of Columbus. Editorials are fact-based assessments of issues of importance to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff members, who strive to maintain neutrality in their reporting.

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