Secretary of State Directive 2025-23 DOES NOT Ensure Only US Citizens Vote in Ohio

In 2022, Ohio citizens voted to amend Ohio’s Constitution to allow only US citizens to vote in Ohio. Over two years later, no state legislation or Secretary of State directive has enforced this change.  

Directive 2025-23 does not address this, as noncitizens can still vote in Ohio.   

• The same flawed election system that lets noncitizens register to vote on the ‘honor’ system without verifying US citizenship is still in place.   

• The same flawed Ohio law that allows individuals to avoid noncitizen identification by registering with the last four digits of their social security number (SSN4) is still in place. In 2024, 60,000 voters registered this way, and 38,000 of them have mismatched registration information to Social Security records. Additionally, a million registered  this way since 2011.

• The same flawed Ohio law that only selects noncitizens who self-identify as noncitizens twice at the BMV is still in place.  There are over 240,000 noncitizens with BMV records. How many of them are not selected for noncitizen reviews because they presented noncitizens documents once instead of twice?  

• The same flawed Ohio law that allows noncitizens to register without proper ID (no driver’s license, state ID or SSN4) is still in place, even though federal law requires otherwise.  

• The same flawed Ohio law that keeps noncitizens on the voter rolls by responding to a notice from the Secretary of State to ‘confirm’ their citizenship with no verification is still in place.

• The same flawed Ohio justice system that allows noncitizens who register and vote without prosecution is still in place.

• This directive allows noncitizens to reregister after being removed,  creating a potential endless cycle of  registration without verification, removal and reregistration without verification.

How can Ohio ensure ONLY US citizens are permitted to vote? 

Continuing the current process of trying to identify noncitizens is futile and will not prevent noncitizens from registering and voting in Ohio elections. A person could be a noncitizen one day, and be a legitimate citizen the next. Instead, efforts should focus on verifying that applicants and existing registrants are US citizens. Once verified as a citizen, that person should not need to be verified again.

Instead of focusing on noncitizens, Ohio state law and Secretary of State directives should concentrate on enforcing the Ohio Constitution’s mandate, which states “Only a citizen of the United States . . . has the qualifications of an elector, and is entitled to vote at all elections.” 

To comply with the mandate set by Ohio’s citizens in 2022, state legislators must enact laws ensuring that only US citizens are permitted to register and vote.  This can be achieved by verifying that only US citizens are added to Ohio voter rolls and verifying that only US citizens are voting.

ELECTORS WITH INELIGIBLE REGISTRATION DATES ARE VOTING IN OHIO ELECTIONS

Over 54,000 electors exist in Cuyahoga County with an invalid Registration Date of 1/1/1900; over 40,000 of them voted in the August 2023 election. Since voter eligibility is dependent on a valid Registration Date, it is necessary to address and correct this issue to ensure all of these electors are qualified as eligible electors, as required by federal and state law.

Many thousands of electors across Ohio voted in the November 2020 election with a Registration Date after the deadline to be eligible to vote in the November 2020 election per federal law [1]. There were around 6,000 of them in Butler County alone. By law, these voter registrations were not eligible to vote in the November 2020 election; however, all of the votes were certified. 

It was determined a flaw in the administration of voter registrations caused Registration Date to be updated when an elector moved to a new precinct in Ohio; however, there has never been any government reporting to reconcile that every vote cast with a Registration Date after the deadline to register and vote in the November 2020 election was indeed cast by eligible electors who moved, which caused the Registration Date to update.

A remedy to this Registration Date flaw was addressed in The DATA Act integrated into HB33 and signed into law in July, 2023 to address this issue when entering or updating Registration Date; however, LSC reports the deadline to implement The DATA Act provisions is JAN 1 2025, leaving the MAR 2024 and NOV 2024 elections still vulnerable to malfeasance once again due to the existing flaw in Registration Date on elector voter records, and still doesn’t address the tens of thousands of invalid Registration Dates in Cuyahoga County.

[1] NVRA 52 U.S. Code § 20507(a) In the administration of voter registration for elections for Federal office, each State shall—

   (1) ensure that any eligible applicant is registered to vote in an election—

        (A)  in the case of registration with a motor vehicle application under section 20504 of this title, if the valid voter registration form of the applicant   

               is submitted to the appropriate State motor vehicle authority not later than the lesser of 30 days, or the period provided by State law, before

               the date of the election;

       (B)  in the case of registration by mail under section 20505 of this title, if the valid voter registration form of the applicant is postmarked not later   

              than the lesser of 30 days, or the period provided by State law, before the date of the election;

       (C)  in the case of registration at a voter registration agency, if the valid voter registration form of the applicant is accepted at the voter     

              registration agency not later than the lesser of 30 days, or the period provided by State law, before the date of the election; and

       (D)  in any other case, if the valid voter registration form of the applicant is received by the appropriate State election official not later than the

              lesser of 30 days, or the period provided by State law, before the date of the election;

SOS DIRECTIVES DO NOT FOLLOW HAVA LAW FOR IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS TO REGISTER TO VOTE

Voter registration applicant IDENTIFICATION requirements are clearly defined in HAVA,[1] in which a driver license number is required to be entered on a voter registration application and only if an applicant does not have a current and valid driver license shall the last four digits of social security number be entered. HAVA further states if this procedure is not followed, the application for voter registration may not be accepted or processed by a State. Section 4.04 of Directive 2023-24 in the SOS Elections Official Manual (EOM) directs otherwise when applying to register to vote in certain situations and on the paper voter registration application form, in noncompliance of HAVA. The Elections Official Manual is the publication that contains all permanent directives issued by the Ohio Secretary of State.

a.     When applying to register to vote in person at the BMV, the applicant’s name, address, birth date, driver license/state identification (DL/ID) and social security number are all available at the time of voter registration application. Some data is prefilled on the voter registration application by the BMV at the time of voter registration application. Since a photo is associated to the DL/ID, the person can be compared to the photo id. 

b.    When registering to vote online, the applicant’s first and last name, DL/ID number and SSN4 are required to be entered and matched to BMV records.  There is no verification the person registering to vote is the actual person in which voter registration information is entered. It could be another person or a computer entering the information online. 

c.    When registering to vote in-person at the SOS or county BOE,  the SOS EOM states a driver license number is required unless the applicant does not have or does not know or remember their driver license number, in which case the applicant is required to provide the SSN4.

This Directive is not in compliance with HAVA 52 U.S. Code § 21083 (a)(5).  

d.    When registering to vote in-person at a designated agency, some data may be prefilled on the paper voter registration application form by the designated agency. SOS EOM states a driver license number is required unless the applicant does not have or does not know or remember their driver license number, in which case the applicant is required to provide the SSN4.

This Directive is not in compliance with HAVA 52 U.S. Code § 21083 (a)(5).  

e.    When registering to vote by mail, the SOS EOM states an applicant is to provide at least one of either their DL/ID or last four digits of their social security number.

This Directive is not in compliance with HAVA 52 U.S. Code § 21083 (a)(5).  

f.     The paper Voter Registration and Information Update Form (rev. 2/7/2023) correctly includes the following Identification Requirements: “If you have a current Ohio driver's license or state ID card, you must provide that number on line 10. If you do not have an Ohio driver's license or state ID card, you must provide the last four digits of your Social Security number on line 10. If you have neither, please write NONE.”    However, the fill-in portion of the form states the following:

The paper voter registration application is not in compliance with HAVA 52 U.S. Code § 21083 (a)(5). How many electors exist on the statewide voter registration database who were and still are illegally registered on Ohio voter rolls with SSN4 entered as identification when the applicant had a current and valid DL/ID?    

Why is this a problem?

(1)  There is no address verification when a voter registration applicant enters SSN4 as identification; therefore, the RESIDENCY requirement to be eligible to vote is unnecessarily and illegally bypassed.

(2) The following are disturbing reports from Help America Vote Verification (HAVV); this program was created as a result of HAVA to monitor voter registrations in which the last four digits of social security number is entered as identification when applying to register to vote:   

·         The Social Security Administration (HAVV) reports over 800,000 Ohio voter registration applications with the last four digits of the social security number (SSN4) were entered as identification since 2011. Over 250,000 (30%+) of these applications returned a non-match of SSN4 to NAME and BIRTH DATE.

How many of the 250,000 non-match voter registrations were illegally added to the voter rolls when there was a valid and current DL/ID that should have been presented as identification?  How many have/had ineligible residences? How many were/are non-citizens?

·         Furthermore, 25,000 electors were added to Ohio voter rolls in 2023 in which SSN4 was entered as identification on voter registration applications; 12,499 (50%) of them returned a non-match of SSN4 to NAME and BIRTH DATE. 1 of every 2 voter registration applications submitted with SSN4 as identification in 2023 was reported as a non-match to NAME and BIRTH DATE. These voter registrations were added to Ohio voter rolls before the SSN4 was even verified!

None of the 12,499 non-match electors should have been added to Ohio voter rolls in 2023 unless voter registration application corrections were made beforehand. It is now likely virtually  all of these electors exist on Ohio voter rolls, and none of them will ever be verified for US citizenship on the current SOS Annual Non-citizen Review that only identifies non-citizens based on BMV records.

(3)  The SOS Annual Non-Citizen Review identifies only non-citizens based on records available at the BMV from persons who have DL/ID related documents on file at the BMV. If a voter registration applicant has a DL/ID and it was not entered on a voter registration application as required by law, but the applicant entered SSN4 based on SOS EOM directive instructions, voter registration records may be excluded from every SOS Annual Non-Citizen Review.

[1] HAVA 52 U.S. Code § 21083 (a)(5) VERIFICATION OF VOTER REGISTRATION INFORMATION (A): Requiring provision of certain information by applicants -

(i)    Except as provided in clause (ii), notwithstanding any other provision of law, an application for voter registration for an election for Federal office may not be accepted or processed by a State unless the application includes—

(I)    in the case of an applicant who has been issued a current and valid driver’s license, the applicant’s driver’s license number; or

(II)   in the case of any other applicant (other than an applicant to whom clause (ii) applies), the last 4 digits of the applicant’s social security number.

(ii)  Special rule for applicants without driver’s license or social security number - If an applicant for voter registration for an election for Federal office has not been issued a current and valid driver’s license or a social security number, the State shall assign the applicant a number which will serve to  identify the applicant for voter registration purposes. To the extent that the State has a computerized list in effect under this subsection and the list assigns unique identifying numbers to registrants, the number assigned under this clause shall be the unique identifying number assigned under the list.

(iii) Determination of validity of numbers provided - The State shall determine whether the information provided by an individual is sufficient to meet the requirements of this subparagraph, in accordance with State law.