The ability for free men and women to select their leaders is a truly rare thing, the secretary of state of Ohio said on Monday.
“The good news is, as Americans, it’s right here, we care about this stuff,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose said. “We care about voter rights, viscerally. We care about election integrity, viscerally. We care about this stuff because we know what a difference it makes.”
Mr. LaRose described the role of his office, which includes overseeing elections and helping Ohio residents start businesses, to over 50 Rotary Club members gathered in the ballroom at the Glass City Center.
“That’s the simplest way to think about this office,” he said of the two responsibilities.
For entrepreneurs, the secretary of state’s office is the “front door of the American dream for starting and growing a business,” Mr. LaRose said.
“When somebody wants to start an LLC or S corp or even a nonprofit, they get their articles of incorporation from the Ohio secretary of state’s office,” he said.
The secretary of state said Ohio has the lowest filing fee for an article of incorporation at $99 and is the quickest for giving applicants responses, which is typically within 24 hours.
Mr. LaRose added he’s passionate about small businesses in Ohio.
“There’s nothing small about small business,” Mr. LaRose said. “Close to 50 percent of Ohioans work for a small business. As much as we’re excited to bring that big new factory or big new headquarters to Ohio, it’s small business that’s really the backbone of our state’s economy. We try to make Ohio a very pro-business environment.”
The 8 million registered voters in the state of Ohio have been participating at really high numbers over the last few years, and he wants to see it continue, Mr. LaRose said.
The year “2025 is a year that maybe people aren’t thinking about being a voter because we just got done with the presidential election, but there are important local races for mayors and city councils and school boards and that kind of thing,” he said.
During his presentation, Mr. LaRose stressed it is “easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Despite what some partisan organizations say, Mr. LaRose said, Ohio voters don’t have to choose convenience over security, or vice versa.
“Ohio, unquestionably, makes it convenient to vote, and we’re proud of that,” he said, referencing voting absentee. “We’re one of the leaders in the country with making it really convenient to cast a ballot.”
He said the beauty of having the ability to vote is “you’re allowed to cheat on the test.”
“You want to be an informed voter,” he said. “If you vote from your own kitchen table, you can flip open your laptop, you can call a friend and ask them, ‘Who are you voting for? I don’t recognize any of these names.’ Call a local lawyer, call a friend of yours, and say, ‘Which one of these candidates for judge is the right one?’”
Mr. LaRose said running elections is a “completely bipartisan enterprise.”
He said if someone were to visit their local board of elections building, it would be hard for them to be able to distinguish a Democrat from a Republican.
“Even the building is bipartisan,” Mr. LaRose said. “Both parties have to be present to even go into the building at the board of elections. We’re very serious about this. On election night, when the polling location closes, the Democrat and Republican poll workers that ran that polling location have to load up in a car together, sit in the car, and drive all of their stuff downtown.”
“You’re standing here, sitting here, thinking, ‘Bipartisan? Republicans and Democrats can’t even agree that today’s Monday,’” Mr. LaRose said. “At your county board and elections and 87 other county board of elections, it’s Democrats and Republicans working together.”
First Published February 3, 2025, 9:55 p.m.
