Ohio Gov. DeWine backs election security probe: ‘People need to have confidence in the system’

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday called for a blue-ribbon commission to investigate election security, citing “potential fraud or fraud” in the November presidential election.

Mr. DeWine, a Republican, stopped short of backing an effort by at least 12 Senate Republicans to challenge President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s win when the Electoral College results are formally counted Wednesday and force an emergency audit of the results in contested states.

“There some problems in the system as far as potential fraud or fraud that occurred,” Mr. DeWine said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we’ve not seen anything that rises to the level that would have changed the outcome of the election.”

He backed an alternative proposal by Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio Republican, for assembling a bipartisan investigation into election security, including the security of mail-in ballots that are central to a host of fraud allegations in the 2020 election.

Mr. DeWine lauded his state’s mail-in voting regime.

“We have verification,” the governor said. “Ohio sets a very high bar and … that should be the bar across the country.”

President Trump beat Mr. Biden in Ohio by a margin of 53% to 45% of the vote.

The margins were much closer in the states contested by Mr. Trump, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where mail-in ballots often played a decisive role in the outcome.

“We have a lot of people in this country who are very concerned,” said Mr. DeWine.

CNN host Jake Tapper argued that voters were concerned about election fraud because “they’ve been lied to by President Trump for weeks.”

He also accused Senate Republicans of “fomenting” distrust in the election process and undermining American democracy.

Similar charges have been leveled by Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who are outspoken Republican critics of Mr. Trump.

“Let’s stay on the big picture,” Mr. DeWine said. “With changes in technology, potential hacking — all of these things, we need to have a commission as Senator Portman says. It takes a long look at it. Why is this important? If for no other reason than there are a lot of people out there who are questioning this election. People need to have confidence in the system.”