Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) on Wednesday announced that 17 non-citizens had voted in the November 2012 election in Ohio, according to MSNBC. But at the same time, Husted said a voter ID requirement would not have stopped any of the 17 from voting, since they are all in the U.S. legally and have driver’s licenses.

“It exists, it’s rare, violators will be held accountable,” Husted said at a press conference, referring to non-citizen voting.

Husted said the 17 cases would be turned over the state attorney general’s office for possible prosecution. In addition to the 17 non-citizens who voted, Husted said that an additional 274 non-citizens in the state are registered to vote.

“This seems to be an act of individuals,” he said. “There does not seem to be any evidence of a concerted effort to register non-citizens.”

The Northeast Ohio Media Group reported that Husted took the opportunity on Wednesday to argue for online voter registration.

“If the legislature had approved online registration and these individuals had attempted to register using that system, they could have been prevented from registering and they and our elections system would be better off,” he said. “I again ask the legislature to take swift action on this common sense reform.”