Jon Husted, Ohio’s secretary of state, appeared on Fox & Friends on Wednesday, where he defended his state’s efforts to ensure the integrity of the voting process. He discussed his efforts to combat voter fraud and revealed that an independent investigation into past elections in his state showed that there were no cases of voter suppression.
Husted began the interview by detailing his efforts to ensure that service men and women serving abroad have the ability to vote. He then added that his office did their best to ensure that Ohio’s 2012 vote was secure by “cleaning up” the voter rolls and removing deceased or ineligible voters.
“I would imagine as you try to clean up the voter rolls, you were probably accused of voting suppression at some point, weren’t you?” Steve Doocy asked.
“We always get accused of voter fraud, voter suppression,” he replied. “But instead of it ending on Election Day, I asked all 88 county boards of elections in the state to do a review, top to bottom, of all substantiated claims of fraud and suppression, and what we came up with were around 270 cases of alleged fraud or irregularity. Zero cases of suppression.”
“These are not my numbers,” Husted insisted. “These are the bipartisan boards of election.”
According to a press release from Husted’s office, the “boards of elections have identified and reported 625 cases of voting irregularities statewide.” Ultimately, only 135 of those have been referred to the state, per the press statement:
To date, 135 cases have been referred to law enforcement for further investigation and possible prosecution. This includes 20 individuals Secretary Husted will refer to the Attorney General today who are registered to vote in Ohio and another state, and who appear to have cast ballots in each this past November. These cases were identified as a result of Ohio’s voluntary involvement in the Interstate Crosscheck Program – a consortium of 22 states seeking to improve overall elections integrity.
Watch the clip below via Fox News Channel:
