Elections board rejects protest of candidate

The Athens County Board of Elections Wednesday unanimously rejected a protest against the candidacy of Green Party member Ty Collinsworth, who is challenging state Rep. Debbie Phillips for Ohio's 92nd House district seat.

The board received a written protest last week from Athens resident Jonathon Metcalf. The protest asserted that some signatures on Collinsworth's petition papers were either fraudulent or incomplete.

The protest further claimed that some dates on the petitions were altered to conceal fraudulent signatures, and in other cases alleged that the petition lines did not include full addresses, proper dates, or were otherwise invalid.

After Wednesday's hearing, Collinsworth said that he was annoyed to hear that somebody he didn't know had made such an accusation.

"It just seemed ridiculously shady to me," he said. "I'm just glad [the board voted the way it did]."

During the hearing Wednesday, Megan Kelley of the Hayman & Kelley Law firm in Columbus, represented Metcalf, who did not attend.

Kelley reiterated the claims in Metcalf's protest, saying there were 12 total questionable signatures. Kelley also claimed that Metcalf is in fact a member of the Green Party, though she presented no documentation to prove so. With Metcalf absent, the board was unable to verify if this is true. The board did have documentation from 2008, however, signed by Metcalf, indicating that he was a member of the Democratic Party at that point.

Collinsworth took an oath and testified before the board that he had personally circulated his petitions and witnessed the signatures. He also said that he knew 98 percent of the people who signed his petitions.

The only time that he wrote on the petitions, Collinsworth said, was when he was informed by board staff members that they needed a room number on one of the addresses. At that point, he said, he contacted the signer and asked if he could insert the address, to which the signer consented. This signature was not one of the ones being challenged by Metcalf, Collinsworth said.

Election board member Aundrea Carpenter-Colvin moved to deny the protest and accept Collinsworth's petitions and certification of candidacy.

"I think it's unfortunate that Mr. Metcalf is not present," she said. "I would have liked to hear his answers to some of these questions."

Board member William Lavelle said that Metcalf needed to prove the accusation somehow, perhaps with a handwriting expert, instead of just eyeballing it and leveling the charge.

Board chair Bill Biddlestone agreed with Lavelle that some sort of proof is necessary.

Collinsworth said he wasn't surprised that Metcalf didn't show up, and he invited Metcalf to help with his campaign if he truly is a Green Party member, as Metcalf's attorney claimed during the hearing.