TOLEDO, Ohio — As part of their standard procedure, the Lucas County Board of Elections has submitted deceased voter ballots to the county prosecutor for an investigation.
During the Board of Elections' official canvass, they received five ballots where the voter died after they requested a ballot.
The ballots were marked as deceased and were not counted, however, under Secretary of State guidelines the ballots must be submitted to the county prosecutor for investigation.
"We don't see any particular malfeasance from our end, but that's up to the prosecutor to investigate," said Tim Monaco, Deputy Director of the Lucas County Board of Elections.
Monaco says they've had one or two deceased voters in the past, but there was a record number of people who voted in the Nov. 3 election, so the number increased to five this year.
This checks and balances happens every election but is especially important this time as false claims of people casting extra votes using the identities of dead people has gained momentum.
"This is not someone going out there and turning in ballots of deceased voters or anything like that. This is a routine check and there's a reason we have these checks in place in Ohio and it's to catch things like this," Monaco said.
The prosecutor will review the ballots and will press charges if any laws were violated.