Voters cast their votes. (Otto Kitsinger for States Newsroom.)
A group fighting for voting rights in Ohio insists it did nothing to justify “swarms” of FBI agents who spread across the state on June 12, searching offices and visiting the homes of Ohio Organizing Collaborative employees and volunteers.
Meanwhile, the FBI has not publicly provided reasons for this action or demonstrated that they were justified.
“We did nothing wrong,” the Rev. Michael Harrison Sr., president of the co-op’s board, said in a statement interview on MS Now. “Even though I did nothing wrong, there is nothing to be found and there are no charges to be filed.”
The cooperative says it has registered more than 600,000 Ohioans to vote. It focuses particularly on traditionally disempowered groups. Its leader said the FBI’s actions were not a complete surprise.
“Whenever you do the right thing, there will always be opposition,” he said during an interview with MS Now. “Any time you provide opportunity to marginalized or excluded people, there is always going to be some degree of pushback.”
He added: “We were actually prepared for this because we clearly understood that every time you decide that you are going to register people that others don’t want to register, and in that way you are engaging people in the equality process… Yes, something had to happen.”
During the conversation, the host Jacob Soboroff has said many times More than 100 agents participated in the statewide campaign. In a public statement, the cooperating organization said “swarms” of agents were operating that day.
The FBI has not responded to repeated requests for comment since the incident.
Numerous outside groups condemned the action as an attempt by a politicized FBI to intimidate marginalized communities and organizations that lend a hand them register during an election year.
In his first public statement on this matter, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative said much the same thing.
“The (cooperation) targeting is the latest effort by those in power to silence individuals and organizations with whom they disagree,” it said. “Even for groups that have done nothing wrong, intrusive investigations are punitive. They want to scare people into volunteering, donating and participating in our democracy. We won’t let them win.”
He added that the federal action was essentially a continuation of efforts in Ohio in recent years to implement them gradually harder to vote.
The state’s Republican leaders justified the fresh rules by saying they combat widespread voter fraud. But the data shows that this is the case scams are vanishingly uncommon in Ohio.
“For years, some politicians in Ohio have tried to make it harder for people to vote,” the collaborator said in a statement. “As part of this effort, they have targeted voter registration programs, including (the organizing company) and its partners. Time and time again, our programs have come under scrutiny. Now, as part of a broader campaign to undermine our democracy, the federal government is attempting to interfere in Ohio’s elections by manufacturing conspiracy theories.”
In an interview with MS Now, Harrison said that the FBI’s actions not only intimidated the organizing cooperative, but motivated it to work even harder.
