Tens of thousands of Ohio voters in the Cincinnati region have been removed from voter rolls this year.
The removal for a vast majority of the 36,000 voters wasn't a major issue. Almost all of those removed, 94%, had died or moved to another county or state, according to an Enquirer analysis of statistics provided by the boards of election in Hamilton, Warren,Butlerand Clermontcounties.
Concerns of voter fraudandvoter suppression continue to be a concern politically for both major parties.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose has purged hundreds of thousands of voters statewide in recent years. He has announced plans in 2027 to purge 209,000 inactive voters who haven't voted in at least four years after receiving a confirmation notice from the state.
But there are other reasons people can be removed from the rolls.
Boards of election, often at the request of the secretary of state, regularly remove voters throughout the year who have moved away, died or are in jail.
They also remove people who aren't citizens.
Few noncitizens have registered
Secretary of state officials review statewide and federal databases to identify noncitizens on the voter rolls. At the end of 2025, LaRose and the federal government signed a 20-year agreement for expanded access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to check immigration records.
This agreement will "ensure unprecedented access to citizenship and other federal records for use in verifying voter registration eligibility," Dan Lusheck, spokesman for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, said in an email to The Enquirer.
The secretary of state notifies local boards of election to remove noncitizens from the rolls.
In Hamilton, Warren, Butler and Clermont counties, 74 out of 36,172 removed from the voter rolls since Jan. 1 were removed for not being a citizen. Most of them, 62, were from Hamilton County.
Of those, three had voted or attempted to vote in prior elections, according to Sherry Poland, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Poland said one noncitizen attempted to vote provisionally and was rejected. Poland said she doesn't know if charges resulted. She referred these questions to the secretary of state, whose Public Integrity Division often handles these investigations.
None of the eight noncitizens kicked off the rolls in Butler County tried to cast a ballot in previous elections, according to spokeswoman Katie Robinson. Clermont County spokesman Chris Dennison said no noncitizen has tried to vote in Clermont County.
Voter fraud rare
Based on statistics from the secretary of state, voter fraud appears to be very rare but does happen. In an October 2025 letter, LaRose said his office identified 1,084 noncitizens statewide on the voter rolls. Of that, 167 "appear to have cast a ballot" in an election from 2018-2024, according to LaRose. More than 20 million votes total were cast in those elections in Ohio.
The votes by noncitizens would amount to about 0.00084% of votes cast.
The Heritage Foundation, a pro-Trump conservative think tank, maintainsa national database of voter fraudconvictions. Since 2016, the Heritage Foundation has found 557 cases of voter fraud across the country, 59 from noncitizens.
Federal prosecutors this month announced the arrest of three noncitizens, one British, one Pakistani and one Filipino, for illegally voting in Gallia, Cuyahoga and Ashtabula counties.
Other reasons for removal
There are other reasons people can be removed from the voter rolls, including a felony conviction and duplicate registration. For voters who have been inactive for years, the secretary of state sends notices asking for confirmation that the person still lives there. If there is no response, the voter is removed.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 74 noncitizens removed from Greater Cincinnati voters rolls this year
