Tenure
On January 12,2019,LaRose was sworn in to serve as Ohio's 51st secretary of state,a four-year term. [36] He was the "first Summit County resident elected Ohio secretary of state in about 166 years",according to Jim Simon,master of ceremonies of LaRose's swearing-in. [37] The Secretary of State offices are in the Continental Plaza high-rise in downtown Columbus. [38]
In April 2019,he observed the Ukrainian presidential election. [39] He promoted simplifying the voter roll maintenance,or "purging," process in May 2019. [40] He also sought automated voter registration, [41] stating that he was crafting an election reform bill on the issue. [42] In May,LaRose defended Ohio's congressional districts,opposed by Democrats for being gerrymandered to favor the Republican representatives in power. [43] In June,he ordered county boards of elections to undergo security upgrades for the 2020 election. [44]
Cleveland.com reported in September 2019 that,as the top election official in Ohio,LaRose had spent "months working on a project to purge Ohio's inactive voters while also trying to address long-standing criticisms of the controversial process". [45] LaRose had focused on fixing issues with voter list maintenance,including,for the first time,publishing the names of voters who could be removed from the voter rolls for inactivity. [46] This increase in transparency led to finding various mistakes and recognizing thousands of voters who had been unduly marked as inactive by their respective counties. [47] He was urged to halt the state law required voter list maintenance of inactive voters by Democrats over errors,but he defended the "purge." [48] That month,his office was reviewing Ohio voter registrations that might have been incorrectly deleted in vendor errors,with Democrats suing. [49] The state ultimately determined that around 40,000 entries included on the list of 235,000 voters to be purged were errors,thanks to the list of inactive voters being made public for the first time by Secretary LaRose. [50]
In September 2019,he was released from a February 2019 lawsuit filed by members of environmental activist groups,who "accused elections officials of using unconstitutional tactics that kept certain initiatives from going before voters". [51] On September 19,he said he was in the process of distributing $12.8 million Election Assistance Commission funds. [52]
On October 25,2019,the Ohio Governor signed Senate Bill 52 (originally sponsored by Secretary LaRose while he was in the state senate),which strengthened Ohio's cybersecurity and elections infrastructure,required post-election audits by all county boards of elections,and made LaRose a member of Ohio's Homeland Security Advisory Council. [53]
In December 2019,LaRose recommended 77 non-citizens who voted and 18 voters who voted twice to the attorney general and county prosecutors. [54]
Following the 2020 United States elections held on November 3,2020,LaRose stated that there were "no serious irregularities with voting",contrary to president Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud. [55]
Before the 2020 primary election,with COVID cases appearing in Ohio,LaRose relocated polling sites away from senior living facilities,recruited new,younger poll workers,and required curbside absentee ballot drop-off at the county boards of elections on election day during voting hours. [56]
On March 16,the day before the primary election,the Ohio Department of Health recommended all Ohioans over the age of 65 self-quarantine and Governor DeWine asked the Ohio Supreme Court to delay the primary until a later date (June 2),as the Governor or the Secretary of State lack the authority to move an election. [57] Secretary LaRose proposed sending absentee ballot requests to every voter,followed by prepaid absentee ballots to those who requested one,with an in person election day on June 2. [58]
The Ohio legislature chose April 28 as the postponed vote-by-mail only election day with a bipartisan plan,approved unanimously by the Ohio House and Senate,including sending postcards to every Ohioan with instructions on how to apply for an absentee ballot. The plan also allowed for one secure drop box per county board of elections for voters to place their absentee ballots if they did not have time to mail them. [59] On April 28,there were reports of long car lines outside county boards of elections as Ohioans who were not able to mail their absentee ballots the day before had to drop them off to make sure their vote counted. Mailed ballots were also taking longer,sometimes 7–9 days,to reach voters. [60]
LaRose,who in 2022 led the effort to eliminate August elections in all cases except for fiscal emergencies,agreed to support an August 2023 election to decide Issue 1,a constitutional amendment proposal backed by Republican state lawmakers. Ohio Issue 1 would raise the threshold for amending the Ohio constitution from the current simple majority,the unchallenged standard in the state since 1912,to 60% supermajority. [61] In testimony in December 2022,LaRose wrote about some August 2020 special elections with what he called "embarrassingly low turnout" of 11.8% and 6.8%. "That means just a handful of voters end up making big decisions. The side that wins is often the one that has a vested interest in the passage of the issue up for consideration. This isn't how democracy is supposed to work." [62]
LaRose supported the passage of 2023 Ohio Issue 1,which would have made it substantially harder for voter-led initiatives to amend the Ohio State Constitution be proposed and approved. [63] When LaRose was asked if Issue 1 was related to an abortion vote,he said,"If this is about one specific issue,then somebody's not really focused on what we're trying to accomplish here." [64] At a Lincoln Dinner in May 2023,LaRose told supporters the August election was "100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution." [65] On July 25,2023,LaRose certified an initiative for the November 7,2023,ballot that would legalize abortion in the state. [66] The Libertarian Party of Ohio filed a complaint with federal officials alleging that LaRose's Issue 1 advocacy violated the Hatch Act for "using his office and official authority to influence,interfere with and affect an Ohio election." [67] Issue 1 was soundly rejected by voters 56.7% to 43.3% in the August election. [68]
United States 
United States Army 
Sergeant first class 
Bronze Star 
