Republican Frank LaRose, Ohio’s chief elections officer, voluntarily turned over to the Trump administration the private information of 8 million Ohio voters in February, including driver’s license info, partial Social Security numbers. At the time, it wasn’t particularly notable.
After all, LaRose has spent all of his nearly eight years in office currying favor with his party’s leader — when Donald Trump was in and out of office.
Since then, though, dozens of states have either refused to give the Justice Department what it wants or limited the information to that which is publicly available.
State Rep. Allison Russo, now a Democratic candidate running to follow LaRose into the secretary of state office, has been outspoken about that decision.
“When Ohioans are required to provide private personal information to participate in our democracy, they deserve absolute confidence that their data will be protected,” the Upper Arlington Democrat said in a campaign news release. “I have grave concerns about how this information could be used or manipulated in ways that undermine the will of American voters.”
LaRose, Russo said, has “betrayed and failed the people of Ohio.”
The non-profit Brennan Center for Justice has been closely monitoring the Trump administration’s effort to obtain voter information from the states. And it doesn’t like what it sees.
“These demands by the Trump administration are unprecedented and a clear encroachment on states’ power to run elections as outlined in the Constitution,” a Brennan Center report concluded. “The effort is part of the administration’s concerted campaign to interfere with future elections.”
According to the Brennan Center, at least 49 states and the District of Columbia have received requests for voter lists from the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ). Most of them have submitted publicly available lists — sans driver’s license numbers and Social Security info — or have not responded at all.
Kentucky is one of those states not responding.
But Ohio is one of 12 states that willingly turned over everything it has, including private information on voters. LaRose, the term-limited Ohio Secretary of State, now a candidate for Ohio Auditor, gave Trump’s DOJ exactly what it wanted, with no questions asked.
We asked LaRose’s press secretary if the secretary of state had asked the Trump administration what it intended to do with the information; there was no reply.
LaRose sent the voter info on to the Justice Department in February, after he had agreed to share 1,000 randomly selected driver’s license records to the Department of Homeland Security in December. In return, Ohio received access to the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, a federal database that tracks citizenship for public benefits.
Critics of LaRose’s capitulation to the Justice Department say that access doesn't justify his turning over private information on Ohio’s 8 million registered voters.
State Sen. Bill DeMora, a Columbus Democrat, said there is a simple explanation.
“LaRose’s cult leader asked him to do it,” said DeMora. “And he always does what Trump wants him to do.”
Of one thing, DeMora is certain.
“I’m sure (Trump) wants to use all of this information against Democrats.”
He may be on to something, given the following Truth Social post from the president:
“Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.”
“President DJT” seems to have declared the “death of Iran” a bit prematurely — it's still lobbing missiles at Israel and other U.S. allies in the region on a regular basis — but there’s no doubt about his war on Democrats.
And Frank LaRose is a willing soldier in that war. More than willing to help. No questions asked.
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