FBI raids Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a voter-registration group

On June 11, 2026, FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a nonprofit that runs statewide voter-registration programs, and fanned out across Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati to question current and former staff, serve subpoenas, and seize electronic devices. A board member estimated that more than 100 agents were involved and said investigators alleged voter fraud while presenting no evidence of wrongdoing.

The raids came roughly five months before the 2026 midterm elections and drew condemnation from Ohio Democrats and democracy advocates as an attempt to intimidate voter-registration work.

The power to search and investigate is reserved for evidence of actual crimes, not turned against citizens for the political work they do. Raiding a nonprofit whose core activity is registering voters — deploying more than a hundred agents across a state, seizing devices and questioning staff months before an election, without presenting evidence of wrongdoing — makes law enforcement an instrument of intimidation rather than justice. Aiming the FBI at voter-registration infrastructure chills lawful civic participation and treats organizing for democracy as something to be policed.