Article 1, Section V of the Ohio Constitution clearly states, “Only a citizen of the United States…is entitled to vote at all elections.” Sprague will work closely with the Trump Administration to obtain access to federal citizenship data to secure Ohio elections by verifying an individual’s citizenship status up-front when they attempt to register to vote, and before they are placed on the official voter rolls.

Photo ID has proven to be a remarkable success in ensuring that people who vote in-person are who they say they are.  As Secretary, Sprague will build upon that success by requiring photo ID for mail-in voting, the same requirement expected of those who vote in-person.

Drop boxes are outdated, unnecessary remnants from the Covid era, are vulnerable to ballot harvesting and fraud, and are not worth the money and manpower necessary to try to make them secure. As Secretary, Sprague will eliminate them.

Ohio can be proud of the fact that bipartisan officials audit every election, every time, and invariably find that election results are 99.9% accurate.  The same scrutiny and evaluation that we apply to the election results should be applied to the myriad processes and components of the voting process that go into the final tally, from the mailing of military overseas ballots to the certification of election results. Next steps are to require a bipartisan panel of boards of elections officials to review all processes and chains-of-custody requirements after every election to ensure every federal and state rule and law was followed throughout the process. 

Currently, a number of Ohio counties utilize voting machines that produce no printed paper receipt from which voters can confirm their choices are accurate before their vote is tabulated. Under Robert Sprague, Ohio will be a paper ballot state. Any machine that is utilized must print and produce a verifiable, auditable paper trail so that voters and election officials can confirm 100% accuracy.

Maintaining a current and accurate voter registration database is the bedrock to running secure elections and is required under federal and state law. Next steps are to ensure the voter list is compliant with the Ohio Constitution, Article V requirements that electors be “a resident of the state” and that “any elector who fails to vote in at least one election during any period of four consecutive years shall cease to be an elector.”

Without apology, Sprague will remove all entries that do not meet the legal requirements of a qualified elector, which includes noncitizens, people who are no longer residents, and dead people.

Next Steps:

• Create an internal audit team within the Secretary’s office that uses the latest technology and latest information to identify voter records that do not comply with Ohio law.

• Work with the Trump Administration to share critical federal data with the states, especially citizenship data from DHS.

• Work with credit bureaus and financial services companies to obtain real-time information on individuals to update and maintain voter registration rolls.

• File an annual report to the legislature detailing the Secretary’s voter registration maintenance procedures.

• In-person voting is indisputably more secure than voting by mail and should be encouraged whenever possible.  

• Sprague will work with the General Assembly to designate Election Day as “We the People Day” -- a state holiday to provide a greater opportunity for more Ohioans to vote at the polls, where our bipartisan boards of elections can ensure the rules are followed and voting is secure.

• By declaring the Election Day a state holiday, Ohio can return primarily to in-person voting, with only certain exceptions similar to those that existed pre-2006.