Cassandra and Harry Scott, Cincinnati-area citizens, were astonished to learn that voter registration changes showed they had changed addresses earlier this year. They had n’t.  ,
The Hamilton County Board of Elections had received two voter registration forms from Black Fork Strategies LLC, an Ohio-based “engagement company that concentrates on all factors of society and political field work.” In accordance with Ohio law, the elections board team sent notice to the citizens at their “new address” and made the changes necessary to the voter rolls. Cassandra and Harry Scott showed up at the BOE department that day.  ,
After receiving those appreciation cards, both of those citizens showed up at our company during regular business hours. Elections Board members in a meeting next month informed Hamilton BOE members that Ms. Cassandra’s fresh address was really her place of business. She had never moved or completed the subscription form.
” Attempting to mislead the Elections”
One of the many suggest voter registration problems related to the left-wing Black Fork Strategies was the false shape. Election Board team reached out to the business, which “provided knowledge” on the staffer accountable for the Scotts ‘ voter registration forms, Poland said.  ,
At the election official’s press conference, the election official stated,” We even received a subscription type in the name of Henry Kissinger.” Some in presence chuckled as the statement was made, possible at the thought of the later and distinguished U.S. secretary of state signing up to cast a ballot in Hamilton County. The Kissinger listed on the kind was compared to voting registration and Bureau of Motor Vehicle database. It was a imbalance every day, Poland said. For Black Fork, staff members had more issues.  ,
Therefore Poland held up a heavy load of voter registrations. They all appeared to be in the same writing, and were submitted by the same staffer. Poland told her table at the July conference that BOE workers had met with Hamilton County’s local boss to” show her what we were seeing and what was being submitted by her business,” but she did not respond to requests for comment from The Federalist.  ,
” We’re today bringing this to the table to see what next ways the committee would like to take, and it would seem these need further analysis”, Poland said. The committee agreed.  ,
” The first thing I want to level out is, you know, we use words like ‘ anomalies,’ ‘ fear,’ and everything else because we try to be Computer, I guess. But this is fraud, openly false conduct”, said Hamilton County Board of Elections part Alex Triantafilou, who also serves as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. ” Who’s concerned or how they’re concerned, that will be off to something other than me. When I receive this countless registration cards, it seems apparent to me that someone is trying to swindle Hamilton County’s elections procedure.
Not only Hamilton County. Election dignity problems involving people of a left-wing business that are” Building Long-Term Progressive Power” have been a problem for years in Ohio.  ,
A Negative Status
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced earlier this month that he had sent 20 region prosecution” for review and possible legal trial” evidence of suspected election rules violations. The secretary of state’s office claims that the violations include the selection of complaint forms in support of a small social group and the inclusion of a left-led vote on redistricting on the November ballot. Citizens Not Politicians is pushing for the constitutional amendment to create a 15-member” citizen” redistricting commission. Additionally, Rose is requesting that the neighborhood prosecutors look into allegations of fraudulent voter registration forms, such as those used in Hamilton County.  ,
In Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located, the local board of elections reported at least 18 suspicious voter registration cards, and Black Fork is also under a cloud. According to the minutes from a June 21, 2023 Cuyahoga County Board of Elections meeting, “multiple counties have encountered issues with potential registration cards being submitted from deceased individuals,” according to Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director Anthony Perlatti’s meeting on June 21, 2023.  ,
This week, the secretary of state referred his office, according to Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser.  ,
In a phone interview, he said,” We are seeking the verifications of all the signatures that were harvested and submitted to the Board of Elections,” adding that it does involve a document with [suspect ] signatures.
In July 2023, Cuyahoga County elections officials requested an investigation into the questionable voter registration cards. The Board of Elections and Cuyahoga County’s prosecuting attorney did not return The Federalist’s requests for comments. Election integrity advocates have criticized LaRose for, in their estimation, moving too slowly on the complaints.  ,
The board in Cincinnati may anticipate an answer in time for the 2028 presidential elections, watchdog Ken McEntee jabbed in a Substack piece earlier this month.” If LaRose’s new team of special investigators handles the Hamilton County referral as quickly as it has Cuyahoga County’s case from a year ago.  ,
Dan Lushek, spokesman for the secretary of state, said the agency cannot comment extensively on active investigations, but he did confirm the matter is under review by the agency’s Public Integrity Division.
” Black Fork Strategies , has had a bad reputation for a while, and it’s no secret that we’ve referred its operatives to the appropriate authorities for further investigation and possible prosecution”, Lushek said in an email response to The Federalist. He noted that referrals have been made “on a rolling basis as they have happened.”
The spokesman said that the boards of elections in Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties have also sent their respective county prosecutors similar referrals.  ,
‘ Committed to Fair Elections ‘ ,
Officials from Black Fork Strategies did not respond to a request for comment. The business did say in a statement that it was working with elections officials regarding all inquiries regarding Black Fork’s voter registration program. The statement, published at WOUB Public Media’s website, boldly asserts,” The petitions in question were NOT submitted by Black Fork Strategies” . ,
The business informed Secretary LaRose’s office about former canvassers and our internal quality control procedures, according to the company. The company added that it has” not engaged in any large-scale petition operations” in 2023 and this election year.  ,
” Black Fork Strategies take any allegations of possible voter registration fraud seriously and cooperates with investigations”, Black Fork’s statement concludes.  ,
Left Connections
The Kent, Ohio-based company, according to the secretary of state’s business filing page, is owned by Kirk Noden, a “veteran community organizer who has successfully founded community organizations in Chicago, Birmingham England, and Ohio”, according to his bio on the webpage of the Democracy &, Power Innovation Fund. The DPI Fund is a partnership of some very far-left groups, including Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin-based BLOC ( Black Leaders Organizing Communities ) and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, whose board of directors Noden serves on.  ,
Noden’s bio states that “in his twenty years as an organizer, he’s led campaigns on a variety of issues, from ensuring fair and affordable housing to promoting criminal justice reform to raising the wages of retail workers.” ” Kirk is currently in charge of a number of movement-aligned and owned LLCs, including a field vendor that runs large-scale electoral programs, a social justice taproom and Mexican Kitchen that houses the Drink Your Values project,” according to Kirk.
He also serves on the left-wing think tank Policy Matters Ohio’s board and is the Safety and Justice Action PAC’s treasurer, which “aims to elect and support progressive prosecutors across the country.”
His for-profit “engagement firm” focuses on “voter engagement and registration, petition collection, canvas programs, and door-to-door campaign work”, according to Black Fork Strategies ‘ website. The business claims to be” committed to paying a living wage and employing people as hourly and salaried employees.”
Field work is unavoidably questioned and challenged by “opposers seeking to undermine democracy.” BFS is battle-tested, with systems to protect program integrity, ensure rigorous and legal compliance activities, and provide partner protection”, the website claims.  ,
‘ Address the Threat ‘ ,
More than 50 Ohio election integrity advocates, lawmakers, conservative group leaders, and concerned citizens recently signed a letter to LaRose outlining” the dangers to election integrity in our state.” The Black Fork Strategies controversy is specifically addressed in the Open Letter of Concerned Citizens and Voters of Ohio, which includes signatories and supporters from the Ohio Freedom Action Network, Coalition of Concerned Voters of Ohio, and AMAC.  ,
Why are investigators reportedly only looking into canvassers, not the business that hired and trained them, as the letter raises a crucial issue? To paraphrase a pretty famous Democrat, President Harry Truman, does n’t the buck stop with Black Fork itself?  ,
It is stated in the letter that “it is imperative that any investigation of wrongdoing extend beyond individual canvassers to include affiliated organizations with election officials taking immediate action to revoke canvassing activities until the investigation and evaluation of business practices are finished.”  ,
Lushek said the secretary of state’s office does not have the authority to file criminal charges, that’s up to prosecutors. He claimed that the organization lacks the authority to revoke an organization’s status on the grounds of an investigation into misconduct.  ,
” That , would require statutory authority that can only be granted by the state legislature, assuming it does n’t violate a constitutional right of due process”, the spokesman said.  ,
He claimed that the Public Integrity Division of the secretary of state’s investigations have caused the business to “terminate the employment of those individuals we have questioned, as well as, more recently, lay off all canvassing staff.”
The concerned citizen letter also requests that LaRose take immediate action to “reduce the threat of noncitizen registration and voting in the 2024 elections.”
” Ohio’s election eligibility verification procedures enable third-party advocacy groups in the state to register tens of thousands of ineligible individuals before they can cast ballot in Ohio elections. The Biden Administration has “exacerbated the problem” by facilitating and facilitating the import of numerous noncitizens, the majority of whom have entered the country in violation of current federal law, according to the letter. It calls for the secretary to implement measures to protect election integrity, including requiring provisional ballots for registered disputes and identifying all voters who have not been declared eligible to cast ballots.  ,
LaRose has objected to some of the changes that campaigners have requested, insisting that the legislature would need to pass laws in order to do so. The secretary has focused on maintaining the voter rolls and removing foreign nationals from the list this election year, but critics claim there is much more to do to make Ohio the “gold standard” of election administration.  ,
In contrast, potential voter registration fraud as suspected in the Black Forks incidents refute the incessantly skepticism of election integrity deniers that there is little to no fraud in American elections.  ,
” So to the extent that there’s any press watching, voter fraud is real, it does happen. It happens oftentimes in the form of phony registrations all in the same handwriting”, Triantafilou, the Hamilton County Board of Elections members said at the July meeting.  ,
The Federalist’s senior elections correspondent, Matt Kittle, is. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
