Doctor to challenge ruling to bar him on ballot
Saying “Ohioans should not have their choices limited just because a few have rigged the system,” Jon Heavey says he will challenge a ruling that he did not qualify to run for Ohio governor.
Using tabulations by county elections boards, the secretary of state's office did not include the Cleveland Clinic emergency room doctor on the list of official candidates for the May primary released Wednesday. Heavey, a Democrat, needed the valid signatures of at least 1,000 registered Ohio voters.
“Because we knew we were the underdogs, my campaign more than doubled the minimum number of signatures required. Then, we verified those signatures against voter databases,” Heavey said in a release late Wednesday night.
Heavey said his campaign had a verification team match each signature to those of registered voters, using the most updated county voter files.
Upon double-checking county elections workers' review of his petition signatures, Heavey said "hundreds ... were errantly disqualified simply because the signature wasn’t 'legible'."
He now will seek reconsideration of those rejections.
“I will challenge the review of these signatures and ask that all campaigns be reviewed again. The math clearly doesn’t add up,” Heavey said.
Sam Rossi, spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said, "There’s no mechanism to challenge through our office. Mr. Heavey would have to go through the courts."
Heavey, who also deals in investments, attracted attention initially because he had loaned his campaign $1.5 million. Then he received negative attention when it was revealed he hadn't voted in several recent elections.