Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced last week that he identified hundreds of noncitizens who have registered to vote in the state and have even cast ballots.

LaRose said in a press release that his team found almost 600 individuals who have registered to vote “despite not being citizens of the United States,” while over 100 individuals “appear to have cast a ballot in an Ohio election” during the time in which they lacked citizenship status.

“I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country do not vote in our elections,” LaRose commented in a statement. “The law requires me to refer these individuals to the attorney general, and that’s what we’re doing today.”

LaRose has initiated a citizenship verification audit under which records are cross-checked against data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, and other state and federal sources. Beyond examining the citizenship status claimed by registered voters, the official recently removed nearly 155,000 voter registrations “confirmed to be abandoned and inactive for at least four consecutive years.”

Republicans have been increasingly concerned about illegal aliens fraudulently participating in elections. Texas Republican Representative Chip Roy introduced a bill earlier this year which would require individuals to provide documentary proof of their citizenship before they can register to vote in federal elections. The bill passed last month in the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, released an analysis showing that “there is irrefutable evidence that noncitizens have been illegally registering to vote and have illegally voted” in American elections, contending that the phenomenon has had a “notable impact” on the electoral process and will likely worsen under elevated illegal immigration.