Possible voter fraud in Ohio, S.C.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted on Friday referred a case of potential voter fraud to the Ohio Attorney General for possible prosecution.
The Fulton County Board of Elections found that a man who appears to be a registered voter in both Ohio and South Carolina may have voted in both states in the 2008 and 2010 general elections. Fulton County is just west of Toledo.
Participating in the same election in two different states is a fourth-degree felony in Ohio.
Fulton County Director of Elections Melanie Gilders said she and deputy director Kandice Lemley joined that office in 2008 and 2010, respectively. Staff Report
Several local boards of election — including Montgomery, Greene, Butler, Warren and Champaign counties — are preparing for the biggest election in four years with new directors at the helm.
The changes vary in severity, from Montgomery County’s veteran director and deputy director making a simple switch of roles, to Greene and Warren counties promoting from within, to Champaign County making wholesale changes.
But they all involve people taking key new roles during the board of elections’ biggest, busiest year.
“It’s like a regular game versus the World Series,” said Montgomery County Board of Elections member Greg Gantt, comparing other elections to a presidential year. “There’s more attention, there’s more intensity ... but it’s still a baseball game. Every process, every procedure we do (is the same).”
Boards of election reorganize every two years under Ohio law, with some counties changing directors each time, while others stay more stable. Miami and Clark county elections leaders stayed in place this year. In Butler County, Lynn Kinkaid moved from deputy to director, with Jocelyn Bucaro making the opposite move ... but only after Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s vote broke a tense deadlock.
Betty Smith, promoted this month to director in Montgomery County after more than six years as deputy, said Ohio has high turnover, according to statistics from the Secretary of State’s office.
“They said maybe 75 to 80 percent of the directors and deputy directors in the state have less than three years in their position,” Smith said. “That’s a little scary, meaning they’ve never been through (a presidential year).”
Even veteran election officials have to adjust to changing roles. Former Director Tracy Smith left the Greene County board for an elections job in Florida on Sept. 30, less than six weeks before the November election.
Deputy Director Llyn McCoy and then-campaign finance supervisor Nancy Johannes each have been at the Greene County BOE for almost 20 years, but they had to scramble. Smith was the board’s main technology person and had been building the ballot for November’s election.
“A lot of other counties have a tech department or an IT guy, but in Greene County we don’t,” said McCoy, who is president of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials. “We were left with firming that process up, and that’s been new to both Nancy and I. That’s been our challenge.”
Johannes, who has since taken over as Greene County elections director, agreed the switch took some work.
“It was a pretty big deal,” she said. “We had all been here, but there were lots of (roles) that we hadn’t done, and we’re doing them now.”
Smith said counties that have big staff changes this year can help themselves prepare for November by cross-training employees.
“The key for us has been that every staff member knows every other office, so that we can migrate people to where the work is,” Smith said. “(Deputy Director Steve Harsman) has a saying that all work is everybody’s work.”
Warren County’s elections officials say versatility will help them. Kimberlie Antrican, who replaced Keir Holeman as director this month, spent four years as deputy director and four years as a clerk. New deputy Brian Sleeth said he served in a variety of roles for four years.
“I had all the confidence in the world that they could step right in,” said Warren County BOE chairman Beverly Moore. “They had experience, they’ve been here, they know the county. I think we have a very good staff, and everybody just jumped in.”
Local counties also help each other in times of change. Smith said Antrican called earlier this week with questions about rules for handling provisional ballots. And Gantt said Montgomery County helped Champaign County with its crisis last November — Deputy Director Megan Hilliard left in the middle of election day, at the same time that Director Robin Burden gave her two weeks’ notice.
“I was a board member at the time, and we became a working board that day,” laughed Meredith Bodey, now the Champaign County BOE deputy director. “But we made it through the (March) primary and didn’t make the news so that’s a good sign.”
McCoy said elections officials will be busy all year — updating voter registration rolls, overseeing campaign finance reports, hiring and training poll workers, buying and testing voting machines, and building ballots.
“Prior to 2000, people really didn’t pay lot of attention to boards of election and our practices,” McCoy said. “In the presidential election cycle, you get lot of attention, from voters, from activists, from media ... and when you work in a battleground state, you want to be as open and transparent as possible. ... That real hyper focus can put a lot on you, and it can get to you sometimes.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2278 or jkelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author
