By Sam Wildow
TROY — The Miami County Board of Elections certified local candidates for the Nov. 2 General Election on Wednesday evening, as well as rejected 15 petitions from candidates to appear on the ballot due to lack of signatures and other petition errors.
A number of candidates running for the unexpired and full term seats open on the Tipp City Council had their petitions rejected due to a lack of valid signatures and circulator statement errors. Those rejected in Tipp City included:
• Frank Scenna, who was running for an unexpired term on the Tipp City Council, due to a lack of valid signatures caused by an error with a circulator statement.
• Meagan Coffield Albert, who was running for a full term on the Tipp City Council, due to a lack of valid signatures.
• Greg Enslen, who was running for a full term on the Tipp City Council, due to a lack of valid signatures.
• John Kessler, who was running for a full term on the Tipp City Council, due to incomplete circulator statements.
• Logan Rogers, who was running for a full term on the Tipp City Council, due to blank circulator statements.
The board approved a petition for Doug Slagel after a review. Slagel had a blank nominating statement on his petition, but it was deemed a “non-fatal error.” He will appear as a candidate for one of the four full term seats open on the Tipp City Council. Others approved to appear on the ballot to run for those seats include Ryan A. Liddy and Joanna Pittenger.
Kathryn Huffman and Robert C. Schwab were also approved by the board to appear on the ballot for the two open unexpired terms on the Tipp City Council.
Additional candidates in other races who had their petitions rejected included:
• Ryan Masin for Bethel Township trustee due to a lack of valid signatures.
• Leroy Smith for Union Township trustee due to a circulator statement error and lack of valid signatures.
• Steve Phipps for the Bethel Board of Education due to a lack of valid signatures.
• Louis Reindel for the Bradford Board of Education due to an incomplete circulator statement.
• Janell Havenar for the Covington Board of Education due to a lack of valid signatures.
• Kelly McMaken for the Piqua Board of Education due to a lack of valid signatures.
• Peggy Jewel for the Troy Board of Education due to a lack of valid signatures.
• George Wooley for the Troy Board of Education due to a lack of valid signatures.
• David Abney for the Bradford Village Council due to signatures being dated prior to the date on the nominating petition.
• Judith Barga for Pleasant Hill mayor due to a blank circulator statement.
The board also reviewed a petition for Sean Mitchell before ultimately approving the petition. Mitchell, who is a candidate for the Piqua Board of Education, was not registered to vote at the address provided on his petition. The board ultimately approved the petition as the address on the petition is believed to be his current address and is in the same district as the board for which he is running.
The board also discussed what could cause a signature on a petition to be considered invalid, such as the name being printed instead of signed in cursive, the voter not being registered, the voter not being registered at the correct address, and the voter not being in the correct district or jurisdiction for that petition. The board’s office explained they look at a number of signatures on file for voters to compare signatures, explaining that they sometimes allow printed names if the voter has printed on a past voter registration or on one of the electronic poll books.
In addition to invalid signatures, the board also encouraged future candidates to fill out all of the sections of their petitions, including the nominating and circulator statements.
“Fill in all the blanks,” board member Audrey Gillespie said. “There’s no flaw for filling in too much. There are flaws for not filling in enough.”
Gillespie advised candidates to, in the future, get on the board’s website and check the voters who signed their petitions to make sure they are registered and also registered at the correct address.
“It breaks my heart every time we have to reject one,” Gillespie said. “That’s not what we’re here to do. That’s not what we want to be doing.”
“I want to see more people run,” Chairman Dave Fisher said. “It makes our democracy and our local government healthy.”
For more information about who was certified for the Nov. 2 General Election, visit www.boe.ohio.gov/miami/.
