By DAVID SKOLNICK

Staff writer

CANFIELD — Secretary of State Frank LaRose said he is requiring political campaign treasurers to sign a form — after it was discovered that the treasurer for a congressman’s campaign had no knowledge of his role.

LaRose, a Republican, said during a Thursday visit at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center that the case involving the campaign fund for U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, made him decide to enact the policy. In that case, a former consultant for Chabot’s campaign is being investigated for allegedly embezzling about $120,000 from the account. The consultant listed his father as campaign treasurer without his knowledge.

“Anything we can do to make sure we have a high-integrity campaign process is important,” LaRose said.

LaRose has no authority over federal campaign forms, but said because of the investigation he decided to require treasurers for state and local campaigns to sign designation of treasurer forms in addition to the candidate signing it. There is a line on the form for the treasurer’s signature, but until now it wasn’t mandatory, LaRose said.

“We changed the policy on that to make that a requirement,” he said. “I am working on a piece of legislation right now” that “will require that signature be on there in order for an individual to be designated as treasurer. It’s one small thing. It’s not revolutionary. But it is a response to something that was found as a result of the thing going on in Cincinnati. I required it as an administrative action, but the bill introduced would not only require it as an administrative action, but would make it law that is required.”

That way, LaRose said, future secretaries of state couldn’t change it without a vote by the General Assembly.

The proposal also requires the treasurer’s signature be verified by a third-party notary.

“Some might think that’s burdensome,” said LaRose, who added he’d leave that decision up to the state Legislature.

When asked about potential for forgeries, LaRose said: “Any signature could be forged I suppose. But obviously that’s a crime. Forging a signature is a crime. If that happened, there would be criminal liability.”

While at the school, LaRose spoke to students about the importance of voting and urged them to become pollworkers.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections registered students to vote and allowed them to participate in mock elections Thursday.

“First-time voting can be intimidating,” LaRose said. “We want to take that intimidation factor out of it. We want them to try it out.”

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