True the Vote | 18062 FM 529 Road, Ste. 162 | Cypress, Texas 77433

VIA EMAIL – RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

October 12, 2015

ATTN: Elections Division

The Hon. Jon Husted

Ohio Secretary of State

180 E. Broad Street, 16th Floor

Columbus, OH 43215

Re: Potential duplicate voter registrations, double voters and incomplete/outdated records in Ohio

voter files

Dear Secretary Husted:

This letter and enclosed data have been respectfully submitted to raise awareness to potential duplicate

registrations found in 10 of the largest Ohio counties’ respective voter files accessible on your office’s

public website. As you know, True the Vote (TTV) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization made up of

concerned citizens who work in concert with election officials across the country to help ensure the

highest standards of election integrity. We commend your office’s coordinated effort with the various

counties involved as voter registration irregularities are probed surrounding the Issue 3 campaign.1 In

light of recent investigations, TTV respectfully submits thousands of active voter records for further

review.

In recent weeks, True the Vote undertook an effort to closely review a large sample of Ohio’s voter file to

spot and elevate specific voter registration records as part of a national clean-up effort. Thanks to your

office’s easily accessible voter information and history records, TTV was able to identify duplicate,

incomplete/outdated and potential double voters. In total, more than 20,000 records have been flagged

across the state for further review.

Duplicate findings were sorted according to “likely” and “possible” pairs, based on the number and

quality of correlations in data fields. Our researchers regularly found voters having unequal middle initial

or suffix inputs and married/maiden name differences, which may have caused duplication. Likely parent-

child pairs (16 years apart or more) were omitted from the reports.

Careful, case-by-case study of potential duplicate registrations yielded a total of 257 individuals who

appear to have voted multiple times in a single election (roughly 18 percent of the total duplicate

registrations flagged), according to available voter history files. These instances have been highlighted in

yellow in the attached spreadsheets.

Finally, TTV reviewed county voter files in search of potentially deceased and incomplete registrations

with regard to birthdates. As you know, incomplete and similar registrations can cause confusion at the

1 Cincinnati Enquirer; Board on pot petitions: ‘You can’t sign up dead people’ (10/6/2015),

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/10/06/vote-fraud-probed-pot-ballot-campaign/73446846/

True the Vote | 18062 FM 529 Road, Ste. 162 | Cypress, Texas 77433

polling place during in-person voting. Our research staff communicated with your office in recent weeks

to clearly understand the purpose of placeholder birthdates (e.g. 1/1/1800, 1/1/1900) found in thousands

of records across the state. Your office advised that some counties have outperformed others in updating

voter files established prior to 1968-1974. Attached to this letter, True the Vote pinpoints the specific

records in need of completion (15,599 total). In addition, TTV elevates 158 records across Ohio that

appear to be older than 109 years of age, yet do not follow placeholder birthdate formatting.

True the Vote understands that it has no

statutory authority to lay citizen challenges

on the highlighted registrations. Based on

that fact, TTV submitted its findings to the

county boards of elections with the request

they review the records and report follow-

up maintenance actions, if applicable.

Further, TTV requested additional

maintenance details pursuant to Section 8 of

the National Voter Registration Act

(NVRA) 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-6(i):

1. Purge date(s) since November 1,

2014 and scheduled until November

1, 2016;

2. The number of ineligible voters

purged or merged by category (e.g.,

dead, duplicate, ineligible, etc.) and

by date;

3. The source agency that provided

the identifying information of the purged deceased; and

4. The number of notices sent to inactive voters since November 4, 2014.

The Office of the Secretary of State has been provided with a copy of each finding file submitted to the

county boards with the hope that cooperative reviews may begin at the soonest opportunity possible. True

the Vote would commend an effort by your office to review the remaining 78 counties for similar

issues to potentially identify the underlying causes and/or third-party sources for duplicate data. The

flagged voter registrations have been provided as attachments to the email transmitting this letter in

Microsoft Excel format.

True the Vote sincerely thanks the Office of the Secretary of State for its attention and looks forward to

future conversations on this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact the organization via email

(logan@truethevote.org).

County Duplicates Double V. Incomplete

Cuyahoga 827 85 110

Franklin 630 44 841

Hamilton 147 31 8,131

Summit 73 14 3,022

Montgomery 62 18 661

Lucas 96 21 127

Stark 101 9 986

Butler 95 9 5

Lorain 58 16 690

Mahoning 47 10 1,026

True the Vote | 18062 FM 529 Road, Ste. 162 | Cypress, Texas 77433

Sincerely,

Logan Churchwell

Communications & Research Director

True the Vote

Attachments: TTV Findings File, “OHcuya150824findings150930”

TTV Findings File, “OHfran150824findings151004”

TTV Findings File, “OHhami150824findings151004”

TTV Findings File, “OHsumm150824findings151006”

TTV Findings File, “OHmont150824findings151004”

TTV Findings File, “OHluca150824findings151004”

TTV Findings File, “OHstar150824findings151006”

TTV Findings File, “OHbutl150824findings151006”

TTV Findings File, “OHlora150824findings151006”

TTV Findings File, “OHmaho150824findings151004”