COLUMBUS, Ohio – An investigation into 20 cases of voter fraud in Ohio has turned up 14 cases of potential or actual wrongdoing, according to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jon Husted, who requested the fraud investigation, also announced that the state’s voter rolls have been purged of thousands of duplicate registrations and have been otherwise updated.
Of the cases referred to DeWine’s office by Husted to be investigated for possible fraud as a result of the voluntary Interstate Crosscheck Program, 13 cases have been turned over to county prosecutors’ offices and one person had plead guilty to falsification.
Five cases were thrown out due to insufficient evidence and one other remains under investigation.
Over 5.6 million Ohio voters went to the polls during the 2012 presidential election, according to Husted’s website.
DeWine says Kim Trombetta, of Butler County, pleaded guilty to one count of falsification.
Also on Monday, Husted announced that nearly all duplicate registrations have been cleared from the statewide voter registration database.
“Out of more than 7.7 million voters statewide, there are currently just four duplicate registrations, a dramatic drop from the more than 340,000 duplicate records that existed in January 2011, when Secretary Husted took office,” a release from his office said.
Husted also says records with complete information is up from 20 percent in 2011 to 86 percent, more than 129,500 voters have updated their address using the online change of address system and nearly 245,000 voters have been verified as deceased and removed from voter rolls.
Husted’s office says more than 300,000 mailings have gone out as part of 2013 National Change of Address Mailing allowing voters to update their information and confirm their registrations.
The office has also contacted 70,000 voters who moved out of state sand 300,000 more who moved within the state, reminding them to update their voting information or cancel their registration prior to the 2012 general election.