Voting rights groups in northeast Ohio’s Portage County have asked Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose to meet with them following a Facebook post by the county sheriff, also a Republican.
Bruce Zuchowski made national news with a public post that has since been removed, urging his supporters to note addresses with signs supporting Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Zuchowski’s post read in part: “Sooo...when the Illegal human "Locust" (which she supports!) Need places to live...We'll already have the addresses of the their New families...who supported their arrival!”
The post went up as former president Trump and US Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), Trump’s running mate on the Republican ticket, shared false and racist rumors about the legal Haitian population in Springfield.
In a joint letter, the Portage County NAACP, the League of Women Voters of Northern Portage County and the League of Women Voters of Kent asked for a meeting with LaRose and local voters who have doubts about the safety and integrity of the November vote following that post by Zuchowski. The letter said some voters feel intimidated and that LaRose has done nothing to allay those concerns.
“Leaders like the county sheriff and the secretary of state set the tone. They should be leading by example and instead, one is fomenting fear and division and the other one is condoning it," said Sherry Rose with the League of Women Voters of Kent.
She said LaRose should reassure those voters: “We think that this is a big step toward rebuilding the trust with voters and to uphold democracy.”
The letter to LaRose comes after some residents filed complaints alleging voter intimidation with local, state and national agencies, including the secretary of state.
But LaRose’s office said it has reviewed the comments and determined they don’t violate election laws.
In a written statement, LaRose said, “we appreciate the invitation and respectfully decline, as the first ballots of Ohio’s general election begin going out tomorrow and early voting gets underway in 18 days."
The statement continued, "We do hope they include a discussion on the dangerous partisan rhetoric that has resulted in now two assassination attempts against a presidential candidate and several threats of violence directed at Secretary LaRose himself. The Secretary believes we all need to lower the temperature of our political discourse."
Efforts to reach Zuchowski were unsuccessful. He is in the midst of a re-election campaign. His original post on his Facebook page has been removed and another has been shared, indicating his earlier post may have been "miscommunicated”.
