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Judge rejects Aey’s last-minute bid
Photo
David Aey
He said he’d already rejected a claim made by Aey.
YOUNGSTOWN — A federal judge rejected a request from a disqualified write-in candidate for Mahoning County sheriff for a last-minute order prohibiting the county board of elections from counting votes cast in Tuesday’s sheriff’s race.
U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus also refused to grant David P. Aey’s request that he prohibit the board from denying Aey’s eligibility as a write-in candidate for sheriff pending resolution of the federal lawsuit Aey filed Tuesday afternoon.
Judge Economus’ order rejecting Aey’s request for the temporary restraining order came in the final hour before the polls closed and the board began counting votes on Tuesday evening.
Aey filed the federal lawsuit and asked for the TRO after the Ohio Supreme Court disqualified him as a candidate for sheriff on Oct. 24 and refused Aey’s request to clarify or reconsider its ruling on Friday.
At the request of incumbent Democratic Sheriff Randall Wellington, the Ohio Supreme Court disqualified Aey because it said Aey doesn’t meet the educational requirements for the job. That left Wellington as the unopposed Democratic incumbent on Tuesday’s general election ballot.
The federal lawsuit was filed on Aey’s behalf Tuesday by Atty. David C. Comstock Jr. Listed as defendants are the Mahoning County Board of Elections and Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers.
Aey’s lawsuit also asks the federal judge to strike down the state’s ballot qualification law, which the suit says is unconstitutionally overbroad and vague.
Earlier this year, the Ohio Supreme Court had disqualified Aey as a Democratic primary candidate because he didn’t meet the ballot qualification requirements, and Judge Economus upheld that disqualification.
In his ruling Tuesday evening, Judge Economus said he had already rejected Aey’s claim that the state’s ballot qualification law is unconstitutional in the primary election case.
Because that earlier ruling makes Aey unlikely to succeed in this case, the judge ordered Aey to show cause by Nov. 19 why his complaint should not be dismissed.
“Aey had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue, and, in fact, did so. Aey did not appeal this court’s ruling,” Judge Economus wrote in his Tuesday order.
Judge Economus ruled that Aey’s motion for an order declaring him eligible as a write-in candidate is not properly before the federal court.
Tuesday’s lawsuit says Aey has satisfied the requirements of state law by earning 60 hours of post-secondary education in the form of 44 hours of transferred credits from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy and 16 hours of credit earned at Youngstown State University.
By completing the 16 credit hours at YSU over the summer, the lawsuit says Aey met and surpassed the 48-credit hour requirement in state law between the primary and general elections.
Aey said in a Tuesday evening interview that he believes his OPOTA training should qualify toward the educational requirements for sheriff. YSU recognizes that academy training for transfer credit, he observed.
“This isn’t about me any longer,” Aey said. “I don’t believe they interpreted the law. They made the law,” he said of the state’s top court. In the aftermath of the Ohio Supreme Court decision, Aey said he is seeking to have the matter clarified by the federal court.
“This is the latest of about three [unsuccessful legal] moves he’s made, and I’m confident the courts will rule against him as they have on the last three attempts,” Wellington said of Aey.
“We’ll just await the outcome from the courts,” Wellington said. “We’ll just move on.”