Yost alleges Patel was not a U.S. citizen when he voted in 2014, 2016 and 2018. An arraignment was scheduled for Nov. 1.
O’Malley said Patel died in December 2022.
“This is one of the greatest examples of prosecutorial overreach I have ever witnessed. The practice of indicting the deceased is draconian,” O’Malley said in a news release. “This is not how we would have handled this case in my office. I am calling on Ohio Attorney General David Yost to immediately dismiss this indictment.”
Yost spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle did not respond to questions about how his office’s investigation resulted in the indictment of a dead man, but in an email on Thursday McCorkle said, “Of course the case will be dismissed.”
In Cuyahoga County the prosecutor’s office has a policy of only indicting people who are alive.
“Prosecutor O’Malley is philosophically opposed to indicting deceased individuals who clearly have no way of defending themselves,” according to the news release from O’Malley, whose comments about Patel’s case were first reported by Cleveland.com.
O’Malley said his office has prosecuted people for voter fraud, including two convicted in the last 18 months, and is reviewing other referrals.
At Tuesday’s news conference Yost announced he had sought and obtained indictments of six people who he said were not U.S. citizens when they allegedly voted in Ohio state or federal elections between 2008 and 2020. They were among 138 total allegations of people improperly voting that his office is investigating at the request of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
The six were indicted for illegal voting, a fourth-degree felony. In addition to Patel, three are from Franklin County, one from Summit County and one from Portage County. Yost’s office took their cases to grand juries in those counties and he said all six cases had previously been declined for prosecution by county prosecutors.
The indictments were handed down last week or this week, with Patel and three others each facing a single count of illegal voting and a 78-year-old Summit County woman facing two counts of illegal voting, according to Yost’s office. Illegal voting can carry a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and five years post-release control. Those indicted are awaiting arraignment and had not issued pleas as of Tuesday’s announcement.
The news release said all but Patel were legal permanent residents when the alleged voting occurred, and all lacked U.S. citizenship. But the news release does not indicate if any of them became naturalized citizens.
Voter fraud by American citizens or noncitizens in the U.S. is exceedingly rare, according to studies by groups such as the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice, the conservative Heritage Foundation and the libertarian-leaning CATO Institute. Ohio has about 8 million registered voters.
It is illegal in the U.S. for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and the Ohio Constitution prohibits noncitizens from voting in any elections. People must attest that they are citizens when they register but federal law prohibits requiring proof of citizenship for federal elections.
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See our election integrity series:
Ohio BMV’s mistakes led to noncitizens getting registered to vote, officials say
LaRose announces BMV review after Dayton Daily News reveals noncitizen voter registrations
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