The flier includes the Trotwood city logo and says, “Paid for by Progressive Citizens of Trotwood.”
Montgomery County Board of Elections officials said Thursday morning that no political action committee by that name had been filed.
County and state officials said a city’s property — in this case the Trotwood logo — is not to be used on a flier and that any PAC which has spent money to influence voters should have registered before the election.
Janice Chinn, who said she’s the facilitator and treasurer of the group, said she registered the PAC with the Board of Elections on Thursday afternoon.
“They told me that I was in violation,” said Chinn, who added that the 112-member group started in 2008 includes people from many different political viewpoints and is focused only on Trotwood issues. “I plead guilty as charged.”
Chinn said the error could be chalked up to “my ignorance and the group’s ignorance” and that the group had never put out printed material until this election.
McDonald was scheduled to talk to this news organization, but a representative called back and referred the matter to Chinn.
“At the polls, I was informed by the Democratic party, the people, I guess they were upset,” Chinn said. “They said that they had not heard of us and they were trying to say we did not exist.”
A message seeking comment from Rezabek was not returned on Thursday afternoon.
“We were watching them hand it out, and we were making complaints on the spot,” Sparks said. “The material had a city of Trotwood logo and it’s being given out by elected officials of the city.”
Sparks said his opponents used dirty tricks politics.
“If there was a violation of the law that went on that could be decided by authorities, then the parties involved should pay the price for violating any potential laws,” Sparks said.
On his campaign’s Facebook page, Sparks wrote: “After witnessing and documenting direct election fraud by municipal officials of The City Of Trotwood, our campaign does not recognize the legitimacy of this election.”
Sparks said he didn’t dispute the voting count, but that his opponents violated campaign finance rules.
Thursday morning, the Ohio Elections Commission said it had not received a formal complaint about the flier.
Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Jan Kelly didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
“We know now,” Chinn said about registering with they county board of elections. “So believe me, we’ll do it going forward.”
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