Justice Department to monitor voting in Ohio county after sheriff’s comment about Harris supporters

RAVENNA, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department will send election monitors to an Ohio county where a sheriff was recently accused of intimidating voters in a social media post, federal officials announced Tuesday.

The Justice Department said it will monitor Portage County’s compliance with federal voting rights laws during early voting and on Election Day. The agency said it regularly sends staff to counties around the U.S. to monitor compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act and other civil rights statutes related to elections and voting.

“Voters in Portage County have raised concerns about intimidation resulting from the surveillance and the collection of personal information regarding voters, as well as threats concerning the electoral process,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

The agency did not elaborate.

Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, a Republican running for reelection, came under fire for a social media post last month in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses written down so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency. He also likened people in the country illegally to “human locusts.”

The sheriff’s comment about Harris’ supporters — made on his personal Facebook account and his campaign’s account — sparked outrage among some Democrats who took it as a threat. His supporters argued he was making a political point about unrestrained immigration and that he was exercising his right to free speech.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio demanded that Zuchowski remove the post and threatened to sue him, asserting he’d made an unconstitutional, “impermissible threat” against residents who wanted to display political yard signs.

Zuchowski later took down the post.

The sheriff’s office said Tuesday that “monitoring of voting locations/polls by the DOJ is conducted nationwide and is not unique to Portage County. This is a normal practice by the DOJ.”

Sherry Rose, president of the League of Women Voters of Kent, a good-government group in Portage County, said she knows some voters complained about Zuchowski to the Justice Department. She said she has seen “concerning rhetoric” on social media after the sheriff’s comments, and an increase in theft of yard signs, but that early voting itself has gone smoothly so far.

“We have seen no instances” of intimidation during early voting, “so that bodes well,” Rose said. “So that I think is where we want voters of Portage County to feel confidence, in that voting system.”

Elsewhere in Ohio, a divided state Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Ohio Democratic Party’s challenge to a directive from Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose preventing the use of drop boxes by people helping voters with disabilities.

The secretary issued his order after a federal judge struck down portions of Ohio’s sweeping 2023 election law in July, allowing more classes of people to help voters with disabilities deliver their ballots. LaRose’s order required such helpers to sign an attestation inside the board of elections office during operating hours.

The majority said the plaintiffs had brought their challenge too close to the election. Judge Pierre Bergeron wrote in dissent that LaRose’s rule “cruelly targets persons who must, by necessity, rely on the help and grace of others.”

LaRose called the move a precaution against “ballot harvesting.” He said in a statement Tuesday that he was “grateful the court has allowed us to proceed with our efforts to protect the integrity of Ohio’s elections.”