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More at OHEA.org The candidates for secretary of state this weekend.

The state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

We're beginning a month of conversations with the candidates for the four statewide executive offices besides governor.

As we talked to Republican and Democrat Amy Acton a few weeks ago, you can find those interviews in our archives at State News.

This week, the candidates for secretary of state, in alphabetical order, here's Democratic candidate Representative Allison Russo, the former House minority leader.

you.

You've said one reason you're running is to protect democracy.

And you and many others see false information put out by President Trump and others as part of that.

You had said that you would not debate your Republican opponent, Robert Sprague, unless he was willing to admit that Trump want.

Trump did not win the 2020 election.

He lost the 2020 election.

He has admitted that.

So why not debate and get out there?

Confront some of these things straight on?

Well, first of all, I didn't say that I would not debate.

We are still negotiating the time and there's been a conflict there.

Listen, I showed up yesterday for an editorial review interview that he was invited to.

He was a no show to that.

So I don't think he actually wants to debate these ideas because he knows that they're false.

He knows that they are unpopular election.

He's leaning into misinformation about our elections, mail voting, ballot drop boxes.

And, you know, that doesn't go over well with most Ohio voters who enjoy access to many of these forms of voting.

You've talked about working to remove bias from ballot language, which the Secretary of State would play a role in, since that office does sit on the ballot board.

How would you do that?

Well, I think first of all, it's in how the ballot board operates.

What we have seen under the current secretary of state is a lot of the decisions about the ballot language are made at the last minute.

They're made behind closed doors.

There needs to be open debate.

You know, I believe in it should be easy to understand language that is straightforward.

There was not an issue working on this language before the current secretary of State and the issues that he did not support.

So I think that we can get back to that.

But from my perspective, issues should fail or win based on what the voters decide, not a secretary of state putting their thumb on the scales.

You've opposed a lot of changes to voting laws that Republicans have pushed forward in the last few years.

If Republicans continue their majority in the legislature and when the governor's office, there could be more, such as removing drop boxes, another try to 60% voter approval for citizen initiated constitutional amendments, shortening or even ending early voting.

Those are possible examples.

How would you push back and fight against those?

Well, I think listen, Karen, I understand the difference between being a legislator and being the secretary of state.

The legislature makes state election law.

The secretary of state has to carry them out.

That said, I do have an obligation and a duty to advocate for voters and for our elections.

So I absolutely would push back during the process.

And, you know, if these laws are passed and they violate either the US Constitution or the state constitution, I also have an obligation to challenge those things through the judicial process.

So I think there are a number of ways that that can happen.

We've got examples from previous secretaries of states.

And, you know, but my job, I understand, is to keep voters front and center and to make sure that everyone has access to fair, free and secure elections.

On that note, President Trump has made it clear he doesn't like Mail-In voting.

That's how more than a million Ohioans, or 13.5% of the voters in 2024, voted by mail and early in person voting and early mail voting has been with us for quite a while here.

How would you protect Mail-In voting?

When Trump is clear he doesn't like it and wants it to end well, he's voted that way.

Right?

Let's be clear the president has voted twice just this year using a mail in ballot.

He does not have to provide a photocopy of his ID in the state of Florida to do so.

He can also request that mail in ballot online.

Unlike here in Ohio, the court so far have slapped his hand and said, no, you cannot interfere with the election process.

The US Constitution is clear about this.

Election administration is a state function.

There is congressional authority.

So far, he has not been granted that congressional authority.

So, you know, like many secretaries of states and other states that have been pushing back, anytime the president tries to attack any form of voting, I will absolutely do the same as secretary of state.

And I anticipate that these attacks on our elections are only going to intensify in the next two years by this president.

The Secretary of State's office identified 27 ballots as potentially illegally cast out of nearly 6 million votes.

This is in 2020, which is 0.0005% of all ballots cast.

So voter fraud is not really a problem.

And that's been established by Republican secretaries of state, most recently Frank Larose and John Huston.

But Republicans have pushed all these anti-fraud measures, saying that even one fraudulent vote is too much and want to know where you draw the line at.

Fraud.

Well, listen, we all want to eliminate voter fraud, and we want to make sure that it doesn't happen.

But as you point out, it is a very, very, very small, small number.

I would argue that as as focused as we are in preventing voting fraud, we also need to take as seriously any potential voter who does eligible voter who does not have their vote counted or is not able to exercise their right to vote.

That is just as important.

And I think many of the changes that we have seen Republicans make here in Ohio and frankly, in states across this country, I think has shifted us too far in the direction where under the guise of saying they want to eliminate voting fraud, which is virtually nonexistent, it's not, but it's virtually nonexistent.

They are instead preventing a large number of people from being able to keep their voter registration and or have their vote counted when they show up to vote.

And that includes right here in Ohio.

You talk about expanding voter access.

How would you do that?

Well, I think part of it is we need to put a real focus on bringing unregistered voters, eligible voters to the table.

I use the statistics 18.

Only 26% of our 18 year olds here in the state of Ohio are registered to vote.

We are one of the lowest registration rates in the country for that age group, certainly the lowest in the Midwest.

And even lower percentage actually shows up to exercise their right to vote.

There is a tremendous amount of work that we need to be done, especially with groups like our young voters.

One of the other functions of the Secretary of State's office is the business side of it.

You've talked about streamlining that.

What exactly would you be doing over on that side of the office?

Yeah.

So I think first of all, it's a very important function of the secretary of state.

Small businesses in particular, huge part of our economy.

But we want to make sure that those businesses are successful, especially within the first year in years three and four.

I think there is tremendous opportunity when those businesses come into the front door, which is through the Secretary of State's office, that we have an ability to do, for lack of a better word, a warm handoff to some of the other resources that are available in the state.

Through many of our other departments.

I've met with a number of business owners through many parts of the state sitting down listening to them, and many of them, they don't know what they don't know, and having some sort of mechanism that the Secretary of State is not just registering new businesses, but actually connecting them to the resources that are available, I think would be tremendously helpful.

And it's a huge area of opportunity for us.

Those two areas that the Secretary of State's office looks at businesses, as well as top elections official.

For a long time, the secretary of state's office was seen as a nonpartisan office.

Even though a Partizan candidate was elected, it was seen as a nonpartisan office.

That's really changed.

Do you want to see it go back to being more nonpartisan?

And if so, how would you how would you help make that happen?

Well, absolutely.

I think we must go back to operating in a nonpartisan manner.

I tell people all the time, it shouldn't matter who you vote for or don't vote for, what issue you support or do not support, you should try.

So you have a Secretary of State who is going to respect your voice.

Make sure that your vote is counted, and ensure that the information that you see in front of you is accurate, unbiased, and not meant to confuse you.

And I think that it is, number one, being transparent in the decisions that are made.

Being consistent in those decisions and, you know, not putting your thumb on the scales to help your party or your own political ambitions.

And we've had secretaries of states in the past that have operated in that manner.

I think we can get back to that again.

I think it is essential that we get back to that again, because it's part of how we rebuild trust in our election process.

Secretary of state Frank Larose has said many times that Ohio is the gold standard for running elections in this country.

Do you think he's done a good job?

Well, I agree with him that I think Ohio is a gold standard.

If you look at our process for how we conduct our elections, you go out and you talk to our 88 county Board of elections.

You know that there are both Republicans and Democrats that are working together to ensure people have access to their right to vote.

Do I think that that is because of Franklin Rose?

No, I think that is because of the election workers and the dedicated elections officials that we have in all 88 of our counters counties.

They deserve a secretary of state who is going to have their back, ensure that they have the resources and training that is necessary, and make sure that they get the funding that they need to conduct fair, free and secure elections.

Should Election Day be a holiday?

Absolutely.

I think Election Day should be a holiday, but just because it is a holiday doesn't mean that that should be the only day that we vote.

Ohioans value our early voting period, which, by the way, starts October 6th and Election day is on November 3rd.

And also, you've opposed issue three, which is the constitutional amendment that would require in-person voters to show photo ID.

Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton says she supports it.

So why are you opposed to it?

Well, I opposed it when it was here in the legislature, because I don't think that we need to enshrine specific forms of photo ID in our state constitution that are likely to become outdated and unreliable in the next 5 to 10 years.

It is both inefficient to change that because you have to go back to voters.

That is costly, and I quote it to we have built a highway system in this state, and we are now going to enshrine in the state constitution that only model T Fords can drive on those roads.

That is what we're setting ourselves up for.

I think there is a better way to make election law, and Ohioans know this is already the law to have photo ID, so this is not about do you support photo ID or not or voter ID or not?

It is.

Should this be enshrined in the state constitution, by the way, without the protections that we have in current state law, and I don't think that it should automatic or automated voter registration.

Do you want people to be able to opt in or opt out?

Well, I think that people I have always supported automatic voter registration.

You know, when people show up at our BMV, it is easy.

It's convenient.

I think that we should make voting for Ohioans, eligible Ohioans as convenient as possible so that more people can participate in the process, have their voices heard, and hold their elected leaders accountable for the decisions that are being made.

Now, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, Robert Sprague, the state treasurer and former state representative and mayor of Findlay.

Your opponent, Alison Rousseau, had said that she would not debate you unless you were willing to admit that President Trump lost the 2020 election.

Now, I don't see that you've ever said that Trump won the 2020 election, but you didn't confirm that President Biden did.

So let's just get this out in the open.

Did President Trump win the 2020 election?

Everyone acknowledges that Joe Biden was president for four years and that Donald Trump lost that election.

But that's not really what this is about.

This is about the fact that my opponent just won't debate, doesn't want to talk about the issues, doesn't want to talk about photo ID or the Secretary of State's office, because, quite frankly, the positions that she's taken are just not ones that common Ohioans are going to approve of.

You've said that you want all paper ballots.

Now, there's already a voter verify paper trail for ballots.

Do you mean that you want that to continue?

Do you mean that you want to go to paper ballots that people fill out in our hand?

Counted?

What do you mean by that?

I don't think a lot of people, you figure that if you're voting in your county, that everybody must vote that way.

But we have different election systems across all 88 counties.

And in some counties they have machines that go through a little roll of paper inside the machine as their ballot.

And others have separate pieces of printed paper that either are machine generated or that people fill out themselves through the little bubbles.

And what we're saying is, my plan is to have that separate paper printed ballot so that you have an audit trail, you have a paper audit trail so that we can go back and count the paper and make sure that the machines have not been compromised.

Would counties still be able to decide for themselves which machines that they want to use?

Because now counties can decide that.

I think as long as they have a separate audit trail, separate piece of paper audit trail, that's fine.

The reason that a separate paper audit trail is so important is because now you end up with two systems that you can double check.

You have the electronic system, and then you also have a paper system that you can go back.

And the good thing about paper is it's immutable.

So you can't change it.

So as long as you scan the ballots right away after the election, you know who won, who lost and how many votes there were in that precinct.

And guess what?

There's that many pieces of paper and nobody can add anything in afterwards.

So it's a great audit feature.

We just want people who have confidence in the audit procedure of the elections.

You and many others have said that American citizens can and should be the only ones who can vote in Ohio elections.

That's in state law.

It was in constitutional amendment that was approved by voters in 2022, which was the last time we saw a governor's race and a US Senate race on the ballot.

So what evidence is there that there is widespread voter fraud committed by non-citizens?

I don't know that there's widespread voter fraud committed by non-citizens, but there is voter fraud that's committed by non-citizens.

And it doesn't matter whether you're talking about Ohio.

We just saw that Frank Larose, the current secretary of state who's done a great job, eliminated 75 people that he thought were non-citizens, that he could not confirm were citizens off the roles of the state of Ohio.

And this is just within the last month.

And look, many of our elections come down to a single vote.

We've had almost 70 elections over the last two years that have come down to a single vote.

So if you don't want only American citizens voting in the elections and you allow non-citizens to vote in those elections, they will determine the outcome of some of those close races.

Number one.

And number two, obviously, when people vote who are not allowed to vote, they disenfranchize Ohio residents, Ohio citizens and Ohio residents.

And we should never disenfranchize an American citizen.

This this voting right that we have that is in the United States Constitution is the highest rate that we have.

And we want to make sure that people have the right to vote, but we also want to make sure that they are who they say they are and that they are submitting valid votes.

And on that note, you've said that if you have photo ID, you have secure elections, Ohio has photo ID, voter photo ID in law.

But that's also going to be on the constitutional constitutional amendments on ballot this time.

So is there widespread voter fraud when it comes to photo ID?

If people using not showing photo ID or using someone else's?

We take election fraud seriously in the state of Ohio, which is why we have only a small amount of it.

But you will see widespread voter fraud if you don't have photo ID.

Photo ID is so fundamental for election security, and you can see that it's fundamental for security, like just to get into the Rif center or the roads tower, I have to show my photo ID or my badge.

You have to show a photo ID when you buy a beer in the state.

Those aren't fundamental rights there.

Well, all the more so that we want to make sure the people are who they say they are and the system is secure.

You know, we're going to check for their citizenship and their residency when they register.

But then we want to know that they are basically who they say they are to vote that registration record.

And so that's the double check within the system.

Photo ID is paramount and fundamental for election security.

I'm in favor of photo ID for in-person voting.

We've had it here the last two two years.

As a state, it's worked great.

No one has been disenfranchized.

The second piece is we need to add photo ID for the mail in ballots, so that we also secure and treat every vote the same.

And then the third piece is we need to take our existing laws and add them to the Ohio Constitution and make that policy permanent, so that they are always a part of our election system.

Now, my opponent, Alison Rousseau, who's the Democrat in this race, she has voted against photo ID for in-person voting.

When that came to the House floor, she voted against photo ID for mail in ballots.

When that came to the House floor, and she opposed and voted against photo ID, adding that to our Ohio Constitution.

So she's taken every opportunity to be 100% against photo ID, and I feel that it's fundamental to our election security here in the state of Ohio.

And I think it's the biggest issue in our race.

President Trump has made it clear he doesn't like mail in voting.

Well, that's how more than a million Ohioans voted in 2024.

And about 45% of Ohioans vote early by mail, in person, or dropped off at County Board of Elections.

So how would you protect Mail-In voting if President Trump is clear on how he doesn't like it?

Or do you think it should be restricted?

Well, look, I mean, we're going to run elections the right way here in the state of Ohio, and we need to have photo ID for mail in ballots.

And the reason that I know that photo ID for in the mail works is because we have an example of this in the financial world.

And so, you know, we had tens of millions of dollars of fraud for people that would submit for your income tax return, and then they would have the checks sent to their address.

And we required people to send a copy of their driver's license with their income tax request, and the amount of fraud dropped to zero in the state of Ohio.

So we know that it works in the financial system, and we want to bring that also to the mail in ballot system.

And for people that don't have a photo ID, we will give them one for free.

For people that are laid up in bed at home and unable to make it to the polls.

You can call your boards of elections or fill out a form online, and they will come out to you and help you vote that ballot.

And even if none of that works, we are going to create a new advocacy group within the Secretary of State's office called the Ohio Voter Advocacy Director, and that individual within my administration will be responsible for making sure that if you're an American citizen, we will help you find the documentation to make sure that you can exercise your rights under the United States Constitution.

Will you be working with groups like the League of Women Voters of Ohio, or anything like that when it comes to that office that you're creating there?

We'll work with anybody that wants to make sure that Americans and Ohio residents want to vote, and to make sure that they can vote.

They've got the right process and the documentation.

We're not trying to prevent people from coming in.

This is not anti-Vietnam War.

We simply want to know that people are who they say they are.

Should a president be able to use the power of the federal government to exert control over elections, when states are the ones that run elections?

Well, actually Congress.

So it's not the president.

It's not the states.

Actually, Congress has the ability to pass laws to regulate.

It says in the United States Constitution, regulate the elections for elected representatives and senators.

It also defers to the state, saying that the qualifications for electors will be the same as the qualifications for the general assemblies of the states.

So Congress clearly has the ability to regulate the elections, and they've done that through the Help America Vote Act and other national pieces of national legislation, which is why the Save act was so important.

But they've not passed that.

So without some sort of action by Congress, it does.

The majority of it does fall to the states.

And as Secretary of State, it's incumbent upon you to be make sure that the elections are fair and transparent and secure.

But the most important thing is that they comply with the law.

You say you want to eliminate drop boxes is outdated, unnecessary and not secure.

But the Legislative Service Commission says 7% of voters use drop boxes in 2024.

So how do you make sure that those voters aren't disenfranchized?

Look, all those drop boxes at the boards of elections.

So all people have to do is walk the extra ten feet and hand it to somebody.

That's the reality.

And if for some reason you can't get there for 30 days a month ahead of time from 8 to 5 or whatever the hours are in that particular day, including weekends, know that's not a burden for people.

And if none of that works, you can drop it in the mail.

So we have plenty of ways to vote.

The problem with the drop boxes is that the only people that it helps are truly the political operatives, and we have passed legislation and laws in the state of Ohio to prevent this ballot harvesting that you see in so many other states.

And we've all seen videos of it.

We don't want it here in the state of Ohio.

And when you allow these political operatives to stuff the drop boxes with ballots, it undermines people's trust in the election system.

So my solution is they're unnecessary, they don't add any value, and they are a security problem for ballot harvesting.

Do we have a serious problem with ballot harvesting and this kind of thing?

In Ohio, if you change the laws, you will have the exact same thing that happens in California, in Minnesota, and many of the other states were ballot harvesting is a huge problem.

So it has to it has to be fixed and the laws have to be upheld.

For many years, the Secretary of State's office was held by a person who was elected to that position.

But the office was largely viewed as politically nonpartisan because of its duties in administering elections.

Should it go back to that, or is there even a way to go back to that?

I think that this is why you got to go out and talk to the voters, and you got to tell them about your vision, your plan.

You've got to be honest about it.

It's why a debate is important, because people deserve to know what the positions are of the different candidates.

And I don't see how people in a republic can make that decision on election day unless we, as the candidates, go out and tell them what our plan is in very clear English.

So I think that's why this conversation is so important.

It's why we have races and the people can choose the ultimately having power in the in the people of the state of Ohio is the ultimate check on government.

And it's the only way that you'll get a secretary of State elected that has integrity.

And the only way to run an election with integrity is to have people of integrity running those elections.

There is one thing that you and your opponent do agree on, and that is that election day should be a state holiday, so why would that be?

And do you want that to be the only day that Ohioans vote?

And no, I want to put that in the Constitution.

Like you said, you want to put other voting laws in the Constitution.

Maybe I like the early voting.

I think it's very good for our state.

A lot of people vote early and have a problem with that.

It's not a security risk.

I want to run secure elections, and I like the idea of Election Day being a holiday.

You know, my opponent has supported it.

I've talked about it, I support it.

Donald Trump just talked about it.

He supports it.

I think it's a good feature, but it's not really the central issue in this, in this race.

The central issue in this race is what we have photo ID on a go forward basis to prevent cheating or will we not?

Next week, my conversations with the candidates continue with Republican Keith Faber and Democrat John Coolidge running for attorney general.

And that is it for this week.

Please check out our website at State News or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show, you can get our Ohio State House alerts by texting state news to this number and listen for our podcast, The Ohio State House Scoop on Monday morning.

And please join us again next time for the State of Ohio.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter Wright.com.

Porter Wright.

inspired every day.

And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org