Smith Submits Public Records Request to Secretary of State's Office

Today, state Senator Kent Smith (D-Euclid) announced that he has filed a public records request with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office seeking all communication between the Secretary of State's office and federal law enforcement regarding the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC).

"Since taking office, we’ve seen the Trump administration target the American system of elections through federal inquiries, investigations, and subpoenas of voting protocols in states like Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, and the territory of Puerto Rico,” said Smith. “The FBI’s raid of the OOC’s offices last month seems consistent with this effort. As of now, no one from the OOC has been charged with a crime, so it appears they were targeted not for doing anything wrong, but for being so effective at doing right. We need transparency on why this organization was investigated, and that is exactly what I’m asking for from the Secretary of State’s office.”

The request follows an FBI raid last month on the Ohio Organizing Collaborative's offices. The OOC, a nonprofit that registered roughly 160,000 Ohio voters in 2024, also advocates on behalf of low-income communities, criminal justice reform, and racial justice, and was a petitioner of 2021 litigation challenging Ohio's legislative redistricting maps.