voter fraud

The Hamilton County Board of Elections has identified a dozen voter registration forms filed by the campaign to legalize marijuana that may be fraudulent.

And, election officials say, they are examining hundreds more filed by The Strategy Network, a company headed by Ian James, who is also running ResponsibleOhio, the campaign for Issue 3, which would legalize marijuana.

A poll worker at an Avondale polling place who is alleged to have voted twice last in November’s election has been referred to the Hamilton County prosecutor for possible prosecution.

The county board of elections – two Democrats and two Republicans - voted unanimously Tuesday to send the case of veteran poll worker Ellen Duncan of Avondale to the prosecutor.

The cases of two more voters accused of casting ballots in Ohio while living in other states have been referred by the Hamilton County Board of Elections to the county prosecutor for investigation.

The two are Naomi Lewin, a former classical music host at radio station WGUC, who moved to New York City in 2009 and Timothy A. Merman, who owns a home in Edgewood, Ky., but has voted from a business address in the Cincinnati suburb of Fairfax.

Voting from an improper address is a felony crime.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections is warning approximately 100 persons suspected of voting from false addresses, including about 30 police officers from around the county: fix the problem or be dropped from the voting rolls.

The board voted unanimously Monday morning to send out the letters giving the persons 30 days to register under their correct addresses.

The police officers, for the most part, used their police stations as their voting addresses, according to a board of elections investigation.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections challenged 96 voters who apparently have incorrect addresses listed on their registration forms or list dwellings that no longer exist.

But only 20 of those voters are active voters; the rest have not voted in recent years.

Marlene Kocher, a volunteer from the Ohio Voter Integrity Project, a tea party organization looking into potential voter fraud statewide, submitted a list of 127 names to the board of elections - all west of Interstate 75 in the city of Cincinnati.

Two more persons suspected of illegal voting in the November 2012 election were referred to the Hamilton County prosecutor Monday morning by the Hamilton County Board of Elections.

Referred to the prosecutor were Lakeisha M. Watkins, a 41-year-old woman who cast a provisional ballot in Colerain precinct  W on election day and then voted in her former precinct, Colerain GG. Board of Elections officials tried to contact the woman and was told that she lives in Boston.