On Tuesday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost disclosed six indictments for voter fraud that were initiated by referrals submitted by Secretary of State Frank LaRose earlier this year.

While Yost was adamant about the significance of the investigations and convictions, he also tried to gauge the extent of the problem, as The New York Post reported.

Yost termed voting as a "sacred right," when speaking to the gravity of the case. Out of all the referrals submitted by LaRose's office, the six charges constitute less than one percent.

Additionally, the AG stated that he does not anticipate any jail time in any of the cases and voiced some slight dissatisfaction with the quality of the referrals.

The Investigation

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation looked into over 600 allegations of voting fraud that the Secretary of State sent to Yost's office.

Out of all the referrals, only 138 involved claims of unlawful voting; the rest concerned matters such as incorrect registrations. Illegal voting is a "strict liability" offense, as emphasized by the attorney general.

“Think about a speeding ticket,” Yost said. “You are stopped for going 52 miles an hour. You thought it was a 50 mile an hour zone. Cop tells you it’s 35. Doesn’t make any difference that you didn’t intend to speed, that you didn’t know that you were speeding, or even that you were reckless or negligent about it — you’re just liable, and ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

The law enforcement officer was clear that his office can only pursue charges after the local county prosecutor has been offered “adequate time” to take them up on its own.

Why Those Six

According to the allegations, every single defendant cast a ballot in at least two separate elections between 2008 and 2020.

The maximum term for these fourth-degree felonies is 18 months in jail and five years of probation upon release. However, Yost stated that it is highly improbable that any of them will be sentenced to prison time based on the accusations.

“Absent criminal history or being part of a criminal enterprise, I don’t see these as being good use of expensive state prison beds,” Yost explained. “That being said, this is important. The right to vote is sacred. It is part of our exercise of sovereignty as a self-governing people.”

“If you’re not a citizen, you don’t get a say, period, and there ought to be consequences if you act differently,” he added.

Paring it Down

Although his office received 138 referrals of alleged illegal voting, Yost argued that even if all were justified, it would not have changed any elections.”

In addition, the AG expressed some frustration with the secretary for referring an excessive number of cases in which the sole offense was registration-related.

“I need to have a sit down with the secretary of state about the value of those cases where there was no voting — I think that we ought to be focusing on the voting,” Yost said.

“I’m thinking that I don’t really want to pull people off of officer-involved critical incident investigations, child rapists, murderers to be chasing voter registration cases for past elections,” he added.