CLEVELAND — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a statement Wednesday night following the FBI’s announcement that Iran and Russia had obtained voter registration information to direct misinformation to voters.
In his statement, LaRose said Ohio hasn’t been affected by this and the state is working with the FBI to monitor the situation.
"This is obviously something we don’t stand for. These are enemies of the United States of America trying to illegally interfere with our election,” LaRose said.
A few key points he relayed to Ohioans include:
- This did not impact Ohio
- Ohio Election officials are monitoring the situation
- Voter registration is a public record in Ohio so no one has to access the dark web to get it.
- Foreign adversaries want to “degrade” the trust we [Americans] have in the election.
LaRose advised Ohioans to report any misinformation or suspicious activity to the Ohio Secretary of State Website.
The FBI offered the following recommendations to voters:
- Seek out information from trustworthy sources, such as state and local election officials; verify who produced the content; and consider their intent.
- Verify through multiple reliable sources any reports about problems in voting or election results, and consider searching for other reliable sources before sharing such information via social media or other avenues.
- For information about final election results, rely on state and local government election officials.
- Report potential election crimes—such as disinformation about the manner, time, or place of voting—to the FBI.
- If appropriate, make use of in-platform tools offered by social media companies for reporting suspicious posts that appear to be spreading false or inconsistent information about election-related problems or results.
RELATED: FBI says Iran, Russia behind election misinformation campaign
