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Most Ohioans Don't Know Who's in Charge of State Elections, Poll Finds

(Nick Castele / ideastream)
(Nick Castele / ideastream)

There are 20 states that allow online voter registration. Ohio isn't one of them - but that's news to many Ohioans.

"In states that don't have online voter registration, like Ohio, most think that they do, many think that they do," said David Becker, with the Pew Charitable Trusts' election initiatives project, which surveyed voters in eight states on voting laws.

Becker said 46 percent voters said they didn't know voter registration is available at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles -- though the Motor Voter law was passed more than two decades ago. And Becker says these weren't the only surprising stats.

"Only 8 percent of Ohio voters knew that it was the Secretary of State's office that's in charge of elections for this state," he said.

Of the other 92 percent, 42 percent had a wrong answer, and the rest didn't even try to guess.

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for Ideastream Public Media. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.