Mike Carey Discusses Ohio Secretary Of State Frank LaRose's Voter Registration Database

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During a House Administration Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH) spoke about Ohio Secretary Of State Frank LaRose's voter registration database.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Carey, is recognized for five minutes.

00:05I want to thank the chairman. I want to thank the ranking member. I do have some questions, but

00:09I want to use a little point of personal privilege. We, in Ohio, we have two Democrats

00:16and we have two Republicans that serve on our board of elections. And we lost one of the great

00:22ones. She was on the opposing side of me, 72 years old, found out she had a brain cancer and just

00:28passed away. So Kimberly was somebody that I got to know when I first got elected. But

00:35I just wanted to take this opportunity to read the comments that our Republican board chairman

00:42said about Kim. He told the Columbus Dispatch that he was very saddened and that she was

00:48a very decent person. For many years, he said he served with Kim, but she was always a loyal

00:55Democrat. She was first and foremost a loyal public servant. So I just wanted to say that

01:02in memory of her today. You know, the maintenance for voter lists is critical, ensuring secure,

01:08fair elections across our nation. Read with interest all your testimony. Accurate voter rolls

01:14drive down administrative costs, prevent fraud, and reassure the general public that the voting

01:20process is trustworthy. And to safeguard these vital processes, the federal government previously

01:27took action by enacting the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

01:33And I want to highlight some of the things that our Secretary Frank LaRose from Ohio has done.

01:40In Columbus, the Secretary and his team annually audit the statewide voter registration database,

01:47frequently monitoring for voter inactivity, and reviews voting history from other states to identify

01:55double voters. Additionally, efforts by county boards of elections include regularly updating roles

02:03to check for changes in addresses, possibly to cease voters, and the removal of duplicate registration.

02:11So, to ensure the transparency for Ohioans, the statewide voter registration database is actually posted

02:21weekly on the Secretary of State's website. And the public can view the daily voter registration snapshots

02:28to see which registrations were added, updated, or removed. So, Mr. Adams, I know there's a lot of information here,

02:36but why is transparency when conducting voter-less maintenance important?

02:41Well, that's what Congress put into the NVRA so we can look. And we brought cases. We won a case in

02:47the First Circuit Court of Appeals for transparency. We just have a case in the Fourth Circuit on appeal where

02:52we beat South Carolina, because they actually don't let anyone look at the roles unless you're a registered

02:57voter, which totally violates the NVRA. Without transparency, you can't know what's going on,

03:02and that's why it's so important. So, let me ask you, do the jurisdictional differences in list

03:06maintenance practices ever become troublesome when looking at efforts from a legal standpoint?

03:12Oh, my gosh. There's a huge gulf between what states are doing. Some very innovative secretaries of

03:20state, for example, yours, are using data sets that they wouldn't even think of in other states. So,

03:26there's wide differences across the country in what they do. Now, I know what our secretary of state

03:32would say if I asked him this question, but I'm going to ask you. Should more states adopt Ohio's

03:37method of voter roll maintenance? Well, I can name Michigan on a start. There's the top list.

03:43But there's other states that desperately should get up to Ohio's standards that aren't even close.

03:49New York. Look, New York has enormous numbers of people without Social Security numbers or the

03:56HAVA mandated number in their database. And that's why I said the ranking member's going to have to mail

04:01campaign material wasting money because the voter rolls are messed up over a simple error.

04:06Well, I want to thank you. I want to thank all the witnesses for traveling, traveling here. And

04:11with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back.

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