Judge to decide Perry County election challenge

By Kathy Thompson, Bucyrus Times-Recorder Staff Writer

12 January 2005 

NEW LEXINGTON A judge hopes to decide by the end of the month whether a challenge to Larry Householder's election as Perry County auditor is valid.

Householder, the former Ohio Speaker of the House, won by only 277 votes against Democrat Bill Crane, who ran the office for several months after the unexpected death of JoAnn Hankinson last year.

Crane filed a lawsuit after a recount he requested came back with the same results as the election. The lawsuit states there were more than 400 "defective" votes. It asks that the results of the Nov. 2 special election to fill the rest of Hankinson's term be voided, and that Crane return to the job he temporarily held until 2006, when the term expires.

Retired Fairfield Common Pleas Judge John Martin is presiding over the case after Perry County Common Pleas Judge Linton Lewis recused himself. Tuesday, he ordered attorneys for Crane, the Perry County Board of Elections and Householder to give him briefs on what "findings of fact and conclusions of law" they each believe is the basis for a decision in their client's favor.

Martin asked for the briefs by Jan. 24, and he hopes to reach a decision by the end of the month.

The two days of the trial included testimony by poll workers and six randomly ed voters.

Crane's Columbus attorney, Michael Kolman, has said he checked the voting records and the number of voters exceeded the number of people who signed the books in at least 11 of 46 precincts. Ohio election law requires all precincts to maintain a book that voters must sign before casting a ballot.

The lawsuit also said 359 votes were cast by people whose signatures were never verified as required by law.

Martin said he feels the major issue of the case is how to "cure" the fact that some voters "obviously became frustrated in their efforts to vote that day."

Martin said poll workers have admitted to making some innocent mistakes such as not getting the signature books signed and whiting out absentee signatures. But, he said, there were no complaints by voters that they had not been able to vote, and no one was allowed to vote twice or misrepresented themselves at the polls and tried to vote as someone else.

"Given all that, how is this to be cured?" Martin said.

The attorney for the board of elections, Donald Brey, said voters were not trying to "steal" the election.

"The results of the election truly reflected what the voters want, and I think the judge fairly concluded that in his statement," he said.

Brey said he did not feel the judge would set aside the election results.

"There are winners and losers in every case," Brey said. "We all make mistakes, and the poll workers, Democrat and Republican, all admitted they made a few innocent ones. This case cannot come down to some abstract rules that Mr. Crane seems to want."

Householder attorney Craig A. Calceterra said Kolman and Crane "have almost a contempt for the voters."

"Mr. Householder assumes people are good and the voters said what they wanted," Calceterra said. "Mr. Crane seems to think people do wrong things and basically has accused the voters of Perry County of voting illegally and breaking the law somehow. That is just not true. Everyone that heard the testimony of the past two days now knows that, including the judge."

Kolman stood by his objections to the election and said the number of disputed votes exceeds the amount of votes by which Householder won.

"We are concerned about the integrity of the election process," Kolman said. "We want this election, or any election, to be fair and properly run. An election has to be free from these types of errors and absent of fraud."

Kolman said even though six voters testified, it is not known how all the voters in the county truly voted.

"We contend this election cannot be cured," Kolman said. "We're supposed to get this right on the day of the election, not later."

Crane refused to comment, referring all questions to Kolman.

Householder said he wants to do what is best for Perry County.

"We're very busy here getting the county budgets in order and seeing that we have the resources to make the county run for the next year," Householder said. "I think the voters of Perry County made it clear what they wanted. Now we'll just have to wait to see what the judge decides."