43
Ineligible sheriff candidate looks to run
The write-in filing deadline is Wednesday.
YOUNGSTOWN — David P. Aey, disqualified by the Ohio Supreme Court as a Mahoning County sheriff candidate, is looking to run for the seat as a write-in candidate.
An Ohio Secretary of State’s spokesman said an October 2007 Supreme Court decision permits disqualified candidates for county and local seats to run as write-ins for the same position. It was only a year ago that someone in a similar situation would have been ruled ineligible to run as a write-in.
The court decision allows Aey, of Boardman, a former deputy sheriff, to file as a write-in candidate, according to the secretary of state’s office. The deadline for write-ins to file is Wednesday.
However, his eligibility is another story.
Aey was removed from the Democratic primary ballot by the Ohio Supreme Court in February.
The court ruled Feb. 14 that Aey wasn’t eligible because he lacks two years of supervisory peace officer experience at the rank of corporal or above, which state law requires of candidates for sheriff.
A federal judge upheld that court’s decision on Feb. 26.
Aey hasn’t done anything since that decision to obtain those two years of supervisory experience.
Aey couldn’t be reached Thursday to comment. But he asked for and received a write-in declaration form Tuesday from the county board of elections and there are campaign signs urging voters to write-in Aey’s name on the November ballot.
Sheriff Randall Wellington says he would consider taking legal action against Aey should he be certified as a write-in candidate.
It was Wellington’s attorneys who successfully convinced the Supreme Court to disqualify Aey as a candidate.
Early Thursday, elections board officials said Aey couldn’t run for sheriff as a write-in because of his disqualification.
But after consulting with secretary of state attorneys later in the day at the request of The Vindicator, Jeff Ortega, an office spokesman, said differently.
Though declining to directly talk about Aey, Ortega said, “In general, based on an Ohio Supreme Court ruling of last year, someone who files candidacy papers for the primary to a county post and is disqualified can file as a write-in for the fall election for any county position including the one they were disqualified from.”
The court ruling referenced by Ortega was made Oct. 2, 2007. The court ruled an Elyria mayoral candidate who lost the Democratic primary that year and opted to run for re-election to the city school board could do so. The Lorain County Board of Elections had prohibited Holly C. Brinda from running for school board. She appealed and the Supreme Court agreed with her.
Losing a primary election and then running for another seat in the general election isn’t an unusual occurrence in Mahoning County. Just last year, Mike Write lost the Democratic primary for Youngstown 1st Ward council member and then lost a November re-election to the city school board.
“As of now, we’re asking our prosecutor for clarification from the secretary of state’s office,” said Thomas McCabe, the election board’s director. “We’ll go from there when and if David Aey files as a write-in.”
Ortega said the office’s “interpretation at this point” is someone in Aey’s position is eligible to file.
State law prohibits those who file declarations of candidacy or submit nominating petitions for partisan state, county and municipal positions in the primary to then run for the same office in the general election. That law took effect Dec. 23, 2003, and was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court in an Oct. 25, 2005, decision.
The 2003 law is referenced in the Elyria case. “The General Assembly has used appropriate language in ... the so-called ‘sore-loser’ provision, which generally bars a person losing in a partisan primary election from participating as a candidate for another office in the succeeding general election.”
The decision states there are exceptions but didn’t include any language about those disqualified for a seat being permitted to run as a write-in for the same post.
skolnick@vindy.com