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Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Ohio Capital Journal reported today on the latest election lies being perpetrated by the Ohio Republican Party, this time from Auditor Keith Faber. At a Westerville Tea Party event last week, Faber floated a bizarre conspiracy theory that Ohio County Boards of Elections might use “special paper” to produce fake ballots to swing elections, trying to act tough when asked about auditing elections. It’s just the latest in a long line of election lies being told by Republicans running for office in Ohio as they try to ingratiate themselves with MAGA Republicans to further their own political ambitions. 

“Faber’s staff was also asked whether he had any reason to suspect that Cuyahoga County — the most racially and ethnically diverse in Ohio — had or was planning to sneak voting-machine paper out of state for use in fraudulent voting. The communications staff didn’t address that question. Nor did it address whether there was any evidence that the kind of voting fraud Faber described had ever been done anywhere in the United States,” writes Marty Schladen for the Ohio Capital Journal. 

“Add Keith Faber to the list of GOP politicians who are pandering to MAGA Republicans and dabbling in conspiracy theories in order to further their own political ambitions. Keith Faber knows better, but is more focused on shamefully clinging to power than being honest with the voters of Ohio,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Read more from the Ohio Capital Journal here and below: 

• But that didn’t stop him from holding out a sinister possibility: that the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections might be diverting special voting-machine paper to other states where unscrupulous elements might use them to produce unsolicited, fraudulent ballots.

• For his part, the director of the board of elections there said his office was doing no such thing and that the state auditor’s office had never contacted his agency about the matter.

• With Republicans holding all statewide offices except the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, officials like Faber are in a tight spot when it comes to election fraud.

• Former President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that he was cheated out of the presidency in 2020 by a rigged election. And now, other Republican candidates are mimicking his past behavior by refusing to say whether they’ll accept the results if they lose on Nov. 8. 

• Experts say such talk is crippling our democracy by undermining faith in its most basic process. Indeed, about 70% of Republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged despite Trump’s epic failure to produce any evidence of that.

• So Ohio’s elected Republicans have a base that’s deeply skeptical of elections at the same time that those officials are running them. 

• Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the official responsible for administering elections, has hyped the possibility of cheating while simultaneously touting how extremely rare it’s been in elections he’s run. In February, LaRose slammed the media for supposedly downplaying voter fraud just after he found just the possibility of one fraudulent vote for every 222,000 cast in Ohio in 2020.

• Faber, the state auditor, seemed to be trying to take a similar tack last week when a member of the Tea Party audience asked him if he audited elections.

• “What I found out is the paper, the paper we use to vote in Ohio, OK, is special paper,” he said. “You need special paper to run the machines. But there really wasn’t ever any inventory done on the paper, OK? And so that supply if you audit that, we’re going to start doing a count. If you ordered 100 (thousand) sheets of paper and you only voted 20,000 people, you better have 80,000 sheets left.”

• He added, “And so we started asking those questions. And I wasn’t really worried because of the difficulty in Ohio of creating extra fake ballots because of the controls. But there was nothing to say the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections who ordered a million sheets of paper didn’t somehow quietly drop off 50,000 of them over here in (another state.) Because the paper is the same from machine to machine and state to state and so we started asking those questions. And I talked to a number of people at local boards of elections and said if you’re going to cheat, what would you do? And so we started looking at that. So the short answer is no. I don’t audit the election.” 

• Faber’s staff was also asked whether he had any reason to suspect that Cuyahoga County — the most racially and ethnically diverse in Ohio — had or was planning to sneak voting-machine paper out of state for use in fraudulent voting.

• The communications staff didn’t address that question. Nor did it address whether there was any evidence that the kind of voting fraud Faber described had ever been done anywhere in the United States.

• Asked if Faber’s office contacted the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to learn how it uses ballot stock, Perlatti said, “No. We really, from an elections standpoint, we really don’t have much interaction at all with the auditor’s office. The auditor’s office comes in more so with county in general on things like payroll and county procurement.”

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Watch the full video HERE

Columbus, OH – Jon Husted has decided to side with Kanye West, apparently. After West went on an antisemitic tirade earlier this month, Husted then retweeted a Fox Business video in defense of West after J.P. Morgan Chase cut ties with him, claiming they did so because of his ‘political viewpoints,’ when in reality the bank had severed ties with West weeks earlier. The video claims that West is being discriminated against because of his political beliefs, when in reality West is being held accountable for spewing a number of antisemitic tropes, which we will not repeat, but can be found HERE. 

“Jon Husted is dangerously amplifying antisemitic rhetoric and defending the indefensible. Ohioans deserve leadership that brings people together, not one that excuses hate in search of political points. Husted should take his retweet down, and apologize immediately,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Vivek Ramaswamy, who is featured in the video defending West, served as an advisor to Husted in 2020. Watch his full interview HERE. 

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Columbus, OH – Following Tim Ryan’s clear win and California Chameleon J.D. Vance’s abysmal debate performance tonight, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters released the following statement: 

“Tim Ryan won tonight’s debate by showing Ohioans that he will fight like hell for workers in the United States Senate. J.D. Vance was no match for Tim Ryan, failing to hide his extreme agenda of forcing survivors of rape and incest to give birth, profiting off companies that rely on China at the expense of American workers, and leaving behind Ohio to make millions in California.”

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Good Monday afternoon, and welcome back to Mike Check, your weekly source of all the infighting, conspiracy spewing and corruption that’s making headlines in and around Mike DeWine’s campaign and statehouse, courtesy of the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Here are some stories you may have missed:

A VERY LAME DUCK. Make no mistake, Mike DeWine will keep his promise to “go as far as we can” to strip Ohioans’ reproductive rights, and according to anti-abortion activists, it’s coming sooner rather than later. The Columbus Dispatch just outlined how anti-abortion activists are working behind the scenes to push Republicans to pass a near-total abortion ban during lame duck session. And they’re confident they have Republican support to do so, with Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonadakis telling the Dispatch: “Based upon my conversations with Huffman and Cupp I am convinced that abortion will be addressed during lame duck.” While Republicans are trying to scrub their long record of attacking women, we know that abortion rights are on the ballot this November. 

OF COURSE NOT.  With the homestretch of the election in front of us, DeWine is making the stakes of the November crystal clear. When asked if the Ohio Constitution protects the right to an abortion, DeWine responded:“Of course not.” Kind of tells you all you need to know. 

DUCKING AND DODGING VOTERS. Mike DeWine knows he’s in trouble with Ohio voters, and that’s exactly why he’s done everything from campaigning on Democratic victories to dodging debates to avoid unscripted moments. He knows he doesn’t have a record to run on and his agenda is out of touch with Ohio voters, which is why he’s also backing out of joint editorial board meetings where he would be forced to defend his record. If he’s so afraid to talk about what he’s done, he doesn’t deserve the job he has.  
Thanks for catching up with us, that’s all the Mike Check we’ve got for this week. If you have questions my email is [email protected]. Have a great week!

“If we’re not able to get everything we want to get done in lame duck, we will be right back on Jan. 1.” 

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Columbus Dispatch just outlined how anti-abortion activists are working behind the scenes to push Republicans to pass a near-total abortion ban during lame duck session. And they’re confident they have Republican support to do so, with Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis telling the Dispatch: “Based upon my conversations with Huffman and Cupp I am convinced that abortion will be addressed during lame duck.”

While Republican leaders are trying to tamp down their anti-abortion agenda ahead of November’s election, it’s clear that they’re telling anti-abortion activists behind the scenes that they’re ready to do their bidding – pushing for a ban on abortion that starts at conception, with no exceptions for rape or incest, once the election is over. These are the same extremists who Mike DeWine promised just months ago that he would “go as far as we can” to rip away reproductive rights. 

“Twenty-one Republican legislators recently promised to ban abortion from the point of conception at an Oct. 5 anti-abortion rally at the Ohio Statehouse. And abortion opponents previously expressed optimism that 2022 was their year,” write Anna Staver and Jessie Balmert of the USA Today Network. 

“Make no mistake: Ohio Republicans are coming for abortion rights in Ohio and the only way we can stop them is by electing Democrats up and down the ballot,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Read more from the Dispatch here and below: 

• Twenty-one Republican legislators recently promised to ban abortion from the point of conception at an Oct. 5 anti-abortion rally at the Ohio Statehouse. And abortion opponents previously expressed optimism that 2022 was their year: “We are going to accomplish our goal and our mission to end abortion in 2022,” Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said in June, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

• It’s also not clear what lines, if any, Gov. Mike DeWine will draw before signing another abortion ban. 

• Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, said abortion rights advocates warned lawmakers that their restrictions would have consequences.

• “If they’re saying that after nine years of deliberation, they are going to somehow craft clearer exceptions that will in any way prevent people from being harmed by their policies, they are either lying or revealing how truly incompetent they are when it comes to understanding the complexities of pregnancies,” Copeland said.

• “The only way to protect Ohioans facing pregnancy complications, or the myriad of other nuanced and important reasons we may need access to abortion, is to not ban abortion in the first place.”

• And Gonidakis says Ohio Right to Life is pushing for that in the final weeks of the legislative session, which are often called “lame duck.”

• “Based upon my conversations with Huffman and Cupp I am convinced that abortion will be addressed during lame duck,” said Gonidakis, adding that he backs a comprehensive approach including DeWine’s proposals, improvements to adoption and more resources for children. “Ohio Right to Life will utilize all of its resources to ensure these topics are addressed.” 

• “If we don’t get it done now,” Huffman said. “We will all be back here anyway.”

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