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Ohio's Secretary of State Wants State Elections Systems Protected From Potential Federal Takeover

Jon Husted
ANDY CHOW
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

Ohio’s Secretary of State is pushing Congress to pass a law that limits the federal government’s role in elections.

Secretary of State Jon Husted fears the Department of Homeland Security might somehow declare states' elections systems critical infrastructure and put them under federal control. So he wants a federal law to prevent that possibility from ever happening.

“All I’m asking them to do is clarify it in the law. If nobody wants it, then we should clearly say they can’t do it in law.”

Husted notes the feds have backed off the suggestion of taking over elections systems in recent days, but he’s not comfortable with the ambiguity in the current law.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.