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The Athens County Board of Elections denies Nelsonville’s petition to remove candidates from the November ballot
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Athens County Board of Elections on Thursday denied the city of Nelsonville’s request to remove from the ballot certain candidates running for office.
The Supreme Court will have the final say over whether candidates are removed from the November ballot, regardless of what the board does, attorney Thomas Spyker said at the start of the hearing.
The names the city was asking the board to remove are write-in candidates running for office under Issue 23, a citizen initiative passed last November that calls for a change in the city’s government.
The city was moving forward under Issue 23 to elect a new government in November until the City Council decided last month to repeal the initiative.
The council then asked the state Supreme Court to order the Board of Elections to remove from the November ballot the names of all candidates running under Issue 23.
The court is expected to make a decision on the city’s request in the coming days or weeks.
In the meantime, the city decided to go ahead and ask the board to remove the names of the write-in candidates under Issue 23.
Spyker said the reason the city did so is because the city has the right to challenge candidates and wanted to exercise this right while there was still time.
It was too late for the city to challenge all the candidates running under Issue 23, but the deadline for filing a protest against write-in candidates was last Friday.
Spyker argued the board should remove the names of these candidates because with Issue 23 repealed, there is no reason for the candidates to be on the November ballot.
Spyker acknowledged that whether the City Council’s repeal of Issue 23 was proper is a question now before the Supreme Court. But unless and until the court says otherwise, the repeal stands and should be followed, he said.
Matthew Voltolini, an attorney representing one of the Issue 23 write-in candidates, argued the city was essentially asking the Board of Elections to agree the repeal was valid in an attempt to influence the Supreme Court.
Voltolini noted that Issue 23 passed with 70 percent of the vote. “The people of Nelsonville have already spoken,” he said. “The City Council didn’t like that.”
If the board were to vote to remove the candidates, Voltolini said, it would leave them in limbo, not sure if they should continue to campaign while they wait for the Supreme Court to make the final call.
The board deliberated in executive session for several minutes then announced its decision to deny the city’s request.
Board member Sky Pettey said the board did not believe it had the authority to remove candidates at this point and wanted to wait for the Supreme Court to provide guidance.