WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thursday, June 11th’s FBI raids on the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and its staff are a deliberate attack on Ohioans’ freedom to vote. Let’s be clear about the intent: this is an intimidation campaign aimed at silencing Black and brown voters, young voters, disabled voters, and working‐class communities; the very Ohioans who have been targeted for years by efforts to restrict access to the ballot.
We’ve seen this playbook before. When certain politicians lose, they lie. When voters reject their agenda, they lash out. And when they can’t win fairly, they go after the organizations that help everyday people participate in our democracy. A political party courts votes; an authoritarian movement tries to stop people from voting.
For nearly two decades, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative has helped hundreds of thousands of Ohioans register to vote, lowered health care costs, expanded child‐care and school funding, and removed barriers that punish people long after they’ve served their time. This raid is not just an attack on one organization; it’s an attack on the coalition of Ohioans who believe in a future where every voice counts.
Ohio politicians have already purged voters from the rolls, drawn districts to dilute Black political power, passed laws to make voting harder, and even had journalists arrested. These raids are simply the latest attempt to rig the rules and control election outcomes by controlling who gets to participate.
But here’s what they always forget: in America, voters choose their leaders; not the other way around. We stand with every community fighting to protect the freedom to vote, because our future depends on the decisions we make together.
Hands off our vote.
