Depositions in Summit GOP suit against LaRose reveal voter roll problems, division in local party

Sworn testimonies in the Summit County GOP’s lawsuit against Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose reveal that the state has yet to determine how many county election boards are improperly disenfranchising convicted felons.

In fact, the state official in charge of Ohio elections admitted under oath that she wasn't aware that the issue existed until it was discovered by the Summit County County Board of Elections.

The process run by county election boards statewide is on hold, at least in Summit County, until state officials determine the best way to avoid purging hundreds of voters with felony convictions who aren't incarcerated and, therefore, still eligible to vote.

The depositions filed Monday with the Ohio Supreme Court by an attorney for the Summit County Republican Party also detail years of political and personal fallout between LaRose and Summit County GOP Chair Bryan Williams:

• In 2016, Williams and the late Alex Arshinkoff, then chair of the county GOP, wanted to oust State Party Chairman Matt Borges. LaRose said he had a "close friendly relationship" with Borges at the time.
• In 2017, Williams and Arshinkoff voted on the election board to deny LaRose a spot as a precinct election official, a position LaRose said he sought to gain experience for his run at the secretary of state's office.
• After LaRose announced his candidacy for secretary of state in May 2017, Williams hosted a fundraiser for his rival in the 2018 Republican primary from Union County in central Ohio.
• In 2019, LaRose — who lived in Summit County until moving last year to Columbus — called Williams to persuade him not to support Jim Schulte for Copley Township trustee. “It seemed odd to me that the Republican chairman would be backing somebody against a Republican incumbent, and backing a person that's not a Republican,” LaRose said in his deposition. Williams refused. Schulte unseated Helen Humphrys, who LaRose considered a “mentor” to him in his hometown.

LaRose did not contest the fact that these events happened. He did reject some of Williams' claims, like the assertion that Borges was a "groomsman" in LaRose's wedding or that Humphrys was his "godmother."

In a letter dated March 3, LaRose denied Williams’ reappointment to the Summit County Board of Elections, citing several reasons (from traffic issues to letting a deceased person’s ballot count) in the 2020 presidential election.

State law gives the secretary of state the authority to accept or reject local party nominations for county election boards every four years. In doing so, LaRose must prove that rejected applicants are incompetent to serve.

The top local Democrat is defending Williams and the integrity of the county election board against claims by LaRose that the operation lacked proper management and staff training. Multiple complaints of a hostile, politically charged workplace have reached the secretary of state's office, some anonymous and others authored by Williams' rivals within Summit County's fractured Republican Party.

Evidence filed Monday by the Summit County GOP included an affidavit from Summit County Democratic Party Chairman Tom Bevan. While Bevan disagrees with Williams’ political viewpoints, the top Democrat found his partisan rival to be “competent and qualified” in how elections should be run and “professional and collegial” in working “cooperatively” on the four-member election board.

Asking donors to pay the legal expense, Williams and the Summit County GOP hired Stephen Funk of Akron-based Roetzel and Andress. The local GOP's lawsuit seeks to have the high court compel LaRose to accept the party’s choice of Williams on the local election board. LaRose is represented by Julie M. Pfeiffer, an assistant attorney general under Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

The testimonies of LaRose, his top election official Amanda Grandjean and Summit County Board of Elections Chairman Bill Rich, a Democrat, were recorded at the end of March and filed Monday in 746 pages of sometimes overlapping evidence, transcripts and legal arguments. A brief from Yost's office is expected next in the case before judges deliberate and issue a ruling. 

With the May primary around the corner, the Ohio Supreme Court decided to take and expedite the case. Until it’s settled, LaRose’s office said it will not appoint someone to fill the vacant board seat.

That means the two Democrats on the board constitute a majority vote for regular board business. Three members are needed to make crucial decisions like accepting election results and approving or rejecting ballots that are improperly marked, missing information or otherwise in question.

Also on Monday, Supreme Court Justice Maureen O'Connor denied the Lorain County Democratic Party's request to depose LaRose, who also denied an election board reappointment there.

The latest round of legal filings shed light on how the state and the county came to learn that voter rolls were mismanaged in 2020, and possibly for years.

About 20 county election boards reported a ballot cast in the name of a deceased person after the 2020 general election, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. In most cases, the ballots were blank, returned by a widow or loved one so as not to fall into the wrong hands. A single ballot cast in Summit County in the name of a Sagamore Hills woman who died months earlier is the only ballot known to have been cast illegally and counted, according to state officials.

The son of the deceased woman complained of the apparent voter fraud in a Facebook post, which was forwarded by one of LaRose’s staff to the Summit County Board of Elections. The election board questioned the son, his widowed father and his sister before referring the matter for criminal investigation by the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, which has yet to announce charges.

State law requires local election boards to remove the names of deceased voters. Instead of assigning a member of the opposite party to look over the other’s work, a Republican employee was allowed to independently process the death certificate reports. A sorting error left more than 700 deceased voters on the rolls in Summit County as of the 2020 November election.

The local board is now paying closer attention to the process with additional checks in place.

On the possible disenfranchisement of felon voters, the Beacon Journal has learned that Summit and some (but not all) other counties unregistered any voter that appeared on felony reports created by a local clerk of courts or the U.S. Department of Justice. The latter list of federal convictions is forwarded to county election boards by the secretary of state.

Felons lose their right to vote only while behind bars. But state law says “the board of elections shall promptly cancel the registration” of names on the felony reports. There’s no statutory guarantee that the lists include only felons who are incarcerated.

Rich stumbled on the issue when asked by County Councilwoman Veronica Sims to educate Oriana House on whether clients ordered there by the courts after receiving felony convictions could still vote. Rich researched the state law and asked his deputy director at the county election office to investigate.

An opinion was sought from an assistant prosecutor in Summit County, who informed the secretary of state's office about the issue. In her deposition, Grandjean told the GOP's attorney that this notification was the first indication, to her knowledge, that any county might be improperly purging convicted felons.

Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.