Ohio voters were not the only ones to raise an eyebrow at an announcement by state Attorney General Dave Yost earlier this week. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley had a thing or two to say as well.

It turns out, one of six green card holders indicted for allegedly voting illegally — Ramesh Patel, 68, previously of North Royalton, Ohio — has been dead for two years. Yost’s office also accused Patel of voting illegally in 2018.

Despite Yost’s attention-getting effort, according to WOIO the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office said it only indicts living people. It added that, in the last year and a half it has prosecuted and convicted James Saunders and Ron Berkowitz for voter fraud.

“This is one of the greatest examples of prosecutorial overreach I have ever witnessed,” O’Malley said, according to WOIO. “… I am calling on Ohio Attorney General David Yost to immediately dismiss this indictment.”

Revelation of the mistake suggests at best Yost’s office was careless in not researching the cases it planned to include in its two-weeks-until-Election-Day announcement.

Why the rush?

Surely the attorney general’s office will dismiss the case against Patel. In the meantime, voters got a glimpse at how flawed the process can be when political figures cobble together last-minute headline-grabbing efforts. Good for O’Malley for speaking up.