by Bruce Checefsky

   (Plain Press July 2026) United States Representative Shontel Brown, a Democrat who represents Ohio’s 11th District, wrote in a letter to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel and Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Office Joshua J. DelManzo, following the raid targeting the Ohio Organizing Collective (OOC), that “overt investigative activity targeting a voter-registration organization risks weaponizing the federal government against lawful civic activity.”

   The OOC is an organization supporting voting rights and voter registration efforts in Northeast Ohio.

   On June 11–12, the FBI and Department of Justice executed a massive sweep involving over 100 agents who searched the Cleveland office of the OOC. FBI agents seized extensive corporate documents, records, and computer files. The Department of Justice (DOJ) was looking into the group’s voter registration efforts and potential voter fraud, approaching volunteers and canvassers at their residences, often without warrants, asking questions about election fraud. Agents were reportedly heavily armed and intimidating, all part of the Trump administration’s attempt to target political opposition in Democratic-led cities.

   Molly Shack, the group’s leader, told attendees at the Brennan Legacy Award Dinner in 2024, where OOC was honored by the Brennan Center, that “we are organizing people in communities around education and criminal justice reform and democracy issues and an ability to have a government that works, that can actually be responsive to citizens in all of our interests.”

   Shack did not respond to an interview request.

   The OOC is the leading voter registration group in the Buckeye State. In 2024, it registered over 100,000 voters.

   Brown continued in her letter to Patel, “Despite no findings of widespread voter fraud, this administration continues to take unprecedented actions to restrict access to the ballot, weaken voting-rights protections, and cast doubt on our election administration.”

   The First Amendment protects the rights of individuals and organizations to engage in political advocacy, she explained, and “any investigation of these protected activities must be conducted with the utmost care and in accordance with all relevant law and Department of Justice policies designed to prevent political bias or retaliation.”

   To better understand the basis and scope of the FBI’s actions against the OOC, Brown asked for the specific authority or legal basis used to authorize the search and to produce the “warrant and affidavit.”

   She added, “What are the policies and protocols that govern investigations that involve organizations that legally participate in voter registration?”

   Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno dismissed criticisms regarding the FBI raid and said the investigation is a “necessary measure to protect election integrity and stop potential voter fraud.”

   Reagan McCarthy, communications director for Moreno, responded to a request for a comment by directing the Plain Press to X @berneimoreno, where the first-term senator born in Bogotá, Colombia, and former North Olmsted luxury car dealer salesman, said in a post, “It’s not just the SPLC (The Southern Poverty Law Center). The Democrat dark money machine has propped up “activist” groups like this across the country, including Ohio. If Americans are going to have faith in our elections, every single fraudster must be investigated and prosecuted. No stone unturned.”

   The European Journal of Political Economy published a paper in June 2019, titled “Electoral fraud and voter turnout: An experimental study.” Authors Vardan Baghdasaryan, Giovanna Iannantuoni, and Valeria Maggian investigated the consequences of electoral fraud on voter turnout. The study showed, among other findings, that the majority group, against which the fraud is undertaken, “responds with significantly higher participation in the extensive ballot-box stuffing case.”

   The academic paper provides evidence that electoral fraud might increase, rather than decrease, voter turnout.

   Low voter turnout has plagued Cleveland for decades, with the city failing to surpass 50% any time in the last four years. In 2025, there were 239,238 registered voters in Cleveland, while only 44,644 cast votes in the municipal general election, or just 18%, and turnout for the primary election was a dismal 7%.

   The least amount of votes cast was Ward 14 with 1,287, followed by Ward 5 with 1,886; Ward 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, and 13 averaged 2,453 votes, with the remaining Wards 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 between 3,015 and 4,617 votes.

   Voter turnout for the City of Cleveland wards during the May 5, 2026, Ohio primary averaged under 22%, with some wards reporting as few as 976 votes (Ward 5).

   Political endorsements and political advertisements provide some insight into the low voter turnout, some researchers claim. A large portion of political advertisements come from the candidate or campaign committee, asking voters to consider the credibility of the candidate.

    Political endorsements and political advertisements provide some insight into the low voter turnout,researchers claim. A large portion of political advertisements comes from the candidate or campaign committee, asking voters to consider the candidate’s credibility.Political endorsements are, by design, “statements from a third party indicating their support of a particular candidate,” according to Tom Vizcarrondo and Milad Minooie, Kennesaw State University. “A voter’s evaluative process of a political endorsement, therefore, will likely consider the credibility of the endorser as the messenger of the communication, rather than considering the credibility of the candidate when evaluating a political advertisement.”

   Political endorsements are, by design, “statements from a third party indicating their support of a particular candidate,” according to Tom Vizcarrondo and Milad Minooie, faculty members in the School of Communication and Media at Kennesaw State University just north of Atlanta. “A voter’s evaluative process of a political endorsement, therefore, will likely consider the credibility of the endorser as the messenger of the communication, rather than considering the credibility of the candidate when evaluating a political advertisement.”  “It’s Not Just What You Say: The Impact of Message Tone on Intra-Party Endorsements,” authors Vizcarrondo and Minooie note endorsements incorporated in a political advertisement sponsored by the candidate, where “they may also be presented to the public as a newsworthy story. In such a case, an endorsement may once again be evaluated as more credible than a political advertisement. However, this credibility advantage may be attributed to the way in which it is presented rather than to the person delivering the endorsement message.”

   In their article, “It’s Not Just What You Say: The Impact of Message Tone on Intra-Party Endorsements,” authors Vizcarrondo and Minooie note endorsements incorporated in a political advertisement sponsored by the candidate, where “they may also be presented to the public as a newsworthy story. In such a case, an endorsement may once again be evaluated as more credible than a political advertisement. However, this credibility advantage may be attributed to the way in which it is presented rather than to the person delivering the endorsement message.” Any direct benefit a candidate sees from an endorsement may be lost if voters also lose faith in the electoral process and decide not to vote. They explain, “A candidate’s increased favorability is meaningless if the potential voter is still not motivated enough to actually vote in that particular election.”

   Intra-party endorsements create political friction by alienating grassroots voters, as seen in the recent Cuyahoga County Democratic Party May 5, 2026, primary election, where internal friction and division caused a hard-fought proxy war for control of the party’s central committee between the progressive establishment and more moderate, law-and-order factions.

   David Brock, chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, in an interview with Signal Weekly Chatter, described the winning candidates as “active” campaigners, not activists.

   Brown closed her letter to Patel and DelManzo with a prediction. “Federal law enforcement is being deployed in a manner that could have a chilling effect on lawful civic engagement,” she said. “Against this backdrop, further aggressive federal investigative actions like the raid in Cleveland and the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center create serious concerns that federal law enforcement is being used to intimidate civic organizations and deter lawful participation in our democratic process.”

   The letter to FBI Director Kash Patel and the Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Office was signed by Rep. Brown (OH-11), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Rep. Greg Landsman (OH-01), and Rep. Emilia Sykes (OH-13).

   “The FBI let us know they received our letter,” said Kenya Harris, Digital Director/Press Secretary for Congressional Representative Brown. “Other than that, we have received no response.”