President Trump claimed in a speech Thursday night that voter rolls in 18 states were compromised by China in the 2020 election that he lost, but he didn’t produce any evidence. Ohio—which Trump won three times, including in 2020—is on that list, though officials have long said the state has the gold standard on elections systems.
A document released by the White House shows Ohio is one of 18 states that Trump claimed has voter data that was bought, stolen or hacked by China.
“My administration is in the process of notifying the states whose election data was compromised by the People's Republic of China and many others," Trump said. "We are committing to fix it and we're also committing to be working with those states and local jurisdictions to help them fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections."
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who provided Ohio voter data to the feds at Trump’s request in February, pushed back on the seriousness of the situation.
His office said in a statement: "Based on the information we’ve received from our federal partners, China might have accessed publicly available election data about 10 years ago. This is the same transparent information that anyone in the world can access with an internet connection."
LaRose added: "While it’s not a breach of any kind, it’s a good reminder that bad actors are out there, and it’s the reason Secretary LaRose built one of the strongest election security programs in the world."
Trump also railed against mail in ballots in his speech. In 2020, 2.17 Ohioans voted by mail. That's twice the 1.08 million Ohioans who cast ballots by mail in 2024. There are 7.9 million registered voters in Ohio.
