DRAFT SECRETARY OF STATE POLICY PROPOSALS

Only the federal government definitively knows who is and who is not a U.S. citizen.  Sprague will work with the Trump Administration to obtain access to federal citizenship data with the end goal of giving Ohio’s boards of elections the ability to verify an individual’s citizenship status when they attempt to register to vote, not after they enter the database.

1. Front End Citizenship Verification

2. Post-Election Custody Audits

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.  Robert Sprague will 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. 

3. All Paper Ballots, All the Time

Ohio will be a paper ballot state with a verifiable, auditable paper trail from which voters can confirm their choices are accurate before their vote is tabulated.

Variances and mistakes in the voter registration database are open windows to voter fraud, and with more than 8 million registered voters in Ohio, maintaining real-time accuracy of the database is challenging but not impossible.  Sprague will ensure the voter list in compliance with the Ohio Constitution, Article V requirement 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.”

4. Voter List Maintenance

    • 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

Sprague will maintain the Business Services Division’s reputation for the lowest filing fees in the Midwest and among the fastest processing times in the U.S.

5. Business Services Division Reforms

    • Solidify the Secretary of State as the one-stop-shop advocate for entrepreneurship in Ohio, particularly within rural counties generally outside the target areas for large scale economic development projects.

    • Upgrade the Division’s operating software to Tecuity – a software specifically designed for state Secretary of States’ offices - to align with the majority of states’ systems and improve efficiency.

    • Allow for the online processing of apostille applications.

    • Work with JobsOhio to promote Ohio’s Business Service Division nationally for its low filing fees and remarkable turnaround time.  The shared goal of businesses starting and relocating to Ohio should align seamlessly with JobsOhio’s economic development mission.

We can’t have a strong democracy without informed citizens. Sprague will partner with Vivek Ramaswamy to launch a bold new civics education push—teaching Ohio’s next generation about their rights, their responsibilities, and the hard truth that freedom survives only if you fight for it. When young Americans know the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and what’s at stake, they’ll stand up—and show up—at the ballot box.

6. Civics Education

Additional Policy Considerations

  • To comply with President Trump’s Executive Order on elections, Sprague will work with the legislature to require that Election Day ends on Election Day and prohibit the inclusion of mail-in absentee ballots received after Election Day.  It will be the responsibility of the Secretary and the county boards to The current four-day Right to Cure period for provisional ballots will be maintained, as the provisional ballots were cast by Election Day.

  • To improve the overall prosecution of instances of voter fraud, Sprague will rationalize the current system by bifurcating voter fraud into significant fraudulent activity deserving of a felony, verses low-level, first-time occurrences more deserving of a misdemeanor.  Additionally, Sprague will work with the General Assembly to determine the appropriate venue to investigate and adjudicate both levels of fraud.

  • The businesses involved with putting an issue on ballots statewide are unique in that they exist with the sole intent of changing Ohio law or the Ohio Constitution, and accordingly, they should be treated differently than traditional Ohio businesses. Given what is at stake, Ohio voters deserve transparency and accountability in the industry and in those attempting to influence them.  To protect the integrity of the signature collection process, Sprague will work with the legislature to:

    • Require petition circulators to be qualified electors in Ohio, i.e. meet all legal requirements to register to vote in the state.

    • Petition gatherers must undergo a background check, register with the state, and undergo mandatory training

    • End evergreen signatures - In Ohio, state law does not limit how long a specific signature petition can be circulated.  Change the law to place a four-year time limit on a signature (for instance, the Personhood Amendment was approved by the Ballot Board in 2012, signatures were collected, and the amendment is technically still a live ball)

    • Prohibit pay by volume – prohibit groups from incentivizing signature collection by paying per signature collected

    • Property rights – prohibit circulators from collecting signatures on private property without the permission of the property owner

  • Businesses should be required to file bi-annual reports for businesses to prevent business identity theft