Federal agents asked Cuyahoga County elections officials about voter registrations submitted by canvassers working for Black Fork Strategies, a firm owned by one of the founders of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, more than a year before the FBI searched the group’s office.

Investigation Details

Elections officials had previously flagged multiple voter registrations filed by Black Fork canvassers as questionable, including four instances in which elections officials said the firm’s workers submitted registrations in the name of dead voters. The Ohio Organizing Collaborative is a longtime player in state liberal politics, working closely with Democrats to register voters and advocate for progressive causes.

According to Tony Kaloger, the deputy director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, the FBI’s questions had to do with elections processes and elections officials’ interactions with Black Fork officials. Kaloger said he didn’t hear anything else about the issue until news reports broke about the FBI raid on the Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s northeast Ohio office.

The FBI’s investigation has alarmed Democrats, who see it as politically motivated during a key election year. Prentiss Haney, a board member for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, described the investigation as textbook political intimidation similar to Civil Rights Era repressions in the 1960s.

The Department of Homeland Security is providing support for the active FBI investigation in Ohio, but the FBI has not commented on the investigation. Black Fork Strategies’ voter registration activities have drawn scrutiny from election officials in several counties, including Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Delaware, and Franklin counties.

Original reporting: Signal Akron — read the source article.