Here We Go Again… Ohio Board of Elections Asks SOS To Investigate Black Fork Strategies For Alleged Registration Fraud…”This is fraud! This is outright fraudulent behavior!”
Earlier this week, The Gateway Pundit shared an update on the GBI Strategies voter registration group that was caught in Michigan turning in potentially thousands of fraudulent voter registrations.
It would appear that GBI Strategies is only one of several groups across America (we will have more to report on our months-long investigation soon) that have been accused of or suspected of turning in fraudulent voter registrations.
In the case of GBI Strategies in Michigan, because of one brave clerk, law enforcement was able to get involved and document the truth about the investigation that took place only one month before the 2020 election.
Unfortunately, Democrat MI SOS Jocelyn Benson and MI AG Dana Nessel hid the investigation from the clerks and from the general public.
Eventually, the FBI took over the GBI Strategies investigation that originated in Muskegon, MI, because it was determined that the group that gave their employees burner phones to communicate and paid them with pre-paid cards was operating in SEVERAL states.
The FBI is apparently where the GBI Strategies investigation went to die.
Now, we have discovered that a group called Black Fork Strategies, which operates across the state of Ohio, is being investigated by the Ohio SOS.
On their website, Black Fork Strategies brags about registering a stunning 125,000+ voters in Ohio since 2018.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections has turned over several suspicious voter registration applications Ohio Secretary of State’s Public Integrity Division.
According to Hamilton County Board of Elections members, the voter registrations in question were recently turned in by the self-described "progressive" voter registration organization Black Fork Strategies.
In the video below, Hamilton County Director of Elections Sherry Poland discusses three issues she's identified with voter registrations tied to Black Fork Strategies, who she claims is running voter registration drives throughout the state of Ohio.
Sherry Poland told the story of registered voters Mrs. Cassandra Thompson Scott and Mr. Terry Scott. The married couple reportedly discovered that someone had attempted to change their voter registration address without their permission.
According to Ms. Poland, it appears that someone at Black Fork Strategies submitted a change of address form on their behalf, changing the address to one of the couple's places of work. They came to the Board of Elections seeking clarification on how this happened.
"Both of these voters were registered voters in Hamilton County. We received two new registration forms submitted by Black Fork Strategies in the name of both of these voters, which would update and change their voting address. That change was completed by our staff, and under Ohio law, an acknowledgement notice was mailed to the voter at the new address that was listed."
Ms. Poland explained that the BOE discovered this potential crime only after the couple came to their office because they discovered that new voter registrations had been created using their names.
In another example, Ms. Poland explained how they received a voter registration from Black Fork Strategies, and the name of the registrant was 'Henry Kissinger.'
"We did do a match, the voter registration database as compared to the DMV database, and it was a mismatch on every item listed, any identifying information listed on this registration form. So we again asked Black Fork Strategies for the canvasser who submitted this registration form, and that is on your summary sheet."
Next, Sherry Poland held up a large stack of voter registrations about an inch thick to show how many registrations one canvasser from Black Fork Strategies turned in with that all appeared to have the same handwriting.
"Lastly, we've received a number of registrations, and there's a table copy for each of you. The stack of registration forms appears to have the same handwriting. And they were all submitted by the same canvasser, who is, again, the contact information listed on your summary."
Ms. Poland explained that they've reached out to the Southwest regional field director for Black Fork Strategies, telling her fellow board members, "When we first noticed these suspicious registrations, we asked her to come to the office.
The deputy director and administrator, Chuck Eckert, and I met with her to show her what we were seeing and what was being submitted by her organization, and she said she would take this up with her employees.
But we're now bringing this to the board to see what next steps the board would like to take, and it would appear that these need further investigation," she explained.
Democrat BOE member Joseph Mallory added, "I've heard of other counties in the state having to deal with suspicious registrations. I think we should refer the matter to the Secretary of State's Public Integrity Office for further investigation."
Hamilton County BOE member Alex Triantafilou didn't mince words when describing the alleged activities of the progressive Black Fork Strategies:
"First thing I want to point out is that we use words like 'anomalies' and 'suspicion' and everything else because we try to be PC, I guess. But this is fraud! This is outright fraudulent behavior! Who's responsible, and how are they responsible? That's all. That'll be up to somebody other than me. But it's plain and obvious to me when you get this many registration cards with the very same handwriting that someone is trying to defraud the elections process in Hamilton County. So, to the extent that there's any press watching, voter fraud is real! It does happen. It happens oftentimes in the form of phony registrations, all in the same handwriting. So that happens." the outspoken BOE member said.
Watch:
This is not the first time Black Fork Strategies has turned in suspicious voter registrations to clerks. Last year, on July 17, 2023, the Cuyahoga, OH, Board of Elections spent considerable time discussing multiple irregularities and changes to voter registrations.
In the video below, the BOE in Cuyahoga County can be seen discussing the potentially fraudulent voter registrations turned in by Black Fork Strategies and how they believe it's a serious issue that needs to be turned over to the SOS office to be investigated.
In the latter half of 2022, we began receiving over 11,000 photo registration cards from the group known as Black Fork Strategies. As is common with large photo registration groups that hire workers from outside to gather registrations.
We saw some typical type sloppiness. Missing date of birth, missing signatures, addresses that didn't match up to the actual street, some non-illegible cards, and some cards that were submitted beyond the required 10-day submission period.
We did meet with a field representative from Black Fork Strategies and brought our concerns to them, as well as provided some additional tips and training that they might implement, as we commonly would give to board of registration groups to ask them to put the initials of the circulator on the bottom of the card, as well as maybe an identifying number to indicate who the circulator was.
In this way, as we're processing the cards, if we start seeing one common circulator providing certain types of cards, it gives us back in the way of helping to provide information to them. At the time, Black Fork Strategies says, they didn't end up doing that. What they did say is at the top of the card, they had a serial number, which is pre-printed on there, which to us, wasn't tied to any of the circulators. But I believe on the back end, they do take that and tie it to the circulator.
One of the other things that we saw, which isn't uncommon, is you have a registration card---it has an address update as long as it has a matching date of birth, along with a matching Social Security number. If the signature is off some--- we see that because people's signatures change over time. People's handwriting skills aren't what they used to be.
So, we process those without much thought. However, over time, as the November election and thereafter came forward, we started hearing some instances of situations that took it a little bit to a different level. Before you have some printouts of some examples, and I'll briefly touch on each of the different scenarios. The first scenario was Voters had submitted a vote by mail.
There were four instances where voters had submitted vote-by-mail applications. Those addresses on those applications didn't match up to what we currently had in the system for those voters. We sent them a challenge letter indicating as far as their address. They came back to the ballot department and said, No, I actually live at that address.
Registration staff did a little bit of research, and they found that the address updates were the result of the registration card provided by Black Fork Strategies.
The thing that was a little bit that was very questionable and something we can't see was where the date of birth and the social security number matched exactly what we had previously had for those voters not filed, but the signature was substantially different. Registration staff and working with the voter, we were able to clarify and process those applications.
We also saw it in two situations, we had a vote, we had a person vote. Here, we had voters who actually appeared here to vote. The address that they provided to our staff did not match up with the current address that we had on file. We were able to determine that, again, they had an address update that was provided by Black Fork Strategies. Again, the date of birth and the Social Security match; however, the signature is substantially different. Those voters were able to, once we rectified it, they were able to vote. Then also after the November election and into this year, staff went back and started looking at a little bit more of what could be another area where we might see this materialize.
So, they found nine instances where it appears that the voters went in to vote. Their address on file did not match what is in our current voter registration database. Those voters voted provisional, which is the way you would typically change your address to their email, and they indicated it back to a previous address that we already had on file with them.
Some of those voters had lived at that house for over 10 years, we believe, consistently for over 10 years. But there again, because their previous signature matched what was on the provisional envelope, we were able to verify and validate those provisional ballots, and the ballots were able to be counted.
Then finally, we did receive three additional questionable registration cards from Black Fork Strategies. These cards appear to closely match deceased voters. However, again, we weren't able to speak with actual family members to determine the actual fact pattern within this. So, obviously, again, a lot of additional research needs to take place. We would, again, recommend a referral to the Secretary of State's Division of Public Integrity, and utilize their seasoned investigators and resources. Many questions remain unanswered as far as with those each and identified The 18 scenarios that we identified.
Watch:
Thank goodness the state of Ohio is getting ahead of a potentially serious mass fraudulent voter registration issue. It's unfortunate that so many of the must-win states have Democratic secretaries of state who are more interested in winning elections than making elections safe and secure for everyone.
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