Elections Board upholds candidate rejection

The Lake County Elections Board maintained its decision to reject the candidacy of Bob Ellis for Eastlake mayor following a reconsideration hearing Feb. 24.

Ellis’ candidacy was rejected at the board’s Feb. 11 meeting because he did not meet the eligibility requirements of Eastlake’s charter, according to the city’s law director Randy Klammer.

The Feb. 24 decision was made on the grounds that the board does not have the authority to overrule the Eastlake City Charter of the legal interpretation or the charter by the city’s law director.

The board added the charter was passed by a majority of voters in Eastlake and the board “has no authority to overturn the will of the voters.”

When Ellis went to pull petitions Jan. 7 he was informed that he was no longer registered to vote. He registered to vote at that time.

Eastlake’s charter requires mayoral candidates to be a resident for at least three years and be a “qualified elector” for the same amount of time. Ellis meets the residency requirement, but because he only re-registered to vote in January, he did not meet the qualified elector requirement.

Lake County Elections Board legal counsel Michael DeLeone said at the Feb. 11 board meeting the law requires the board do its due diligence to ensure all candidates are qualified by statute or “any other law or procedure mandated under the laws of the state of Ohio.”

“So the (Eastlake) charter was adopted under the laws of the state of Ohio and only the law director is

empowered to interpret what the charter means,” DeLeone said. “So once there was that issue, Mr. Klammer ... reached out and said that he was preparing a memorandum on this and I said ‘please send that over as soon as possible.’

“And once we had the memorandum, which states that this candidacy does not comply with this section of the charter, that pretty much ties our hands at the board of who doesn’t meet the qualifications based on the law director’s legal opinion.”

Elections board records show that Ellis last voted in the 2008 general election. Due to his inactive voter status, Ellis had been removed from the voting rolls.

Elections Board Director Ross McDonald said at the Feb. 24 reconsideration hearing that the board’s records indicate Ellis was sent the “typical notice that we send to someone who is in jeopardy of having their voter registration canceled.”

Ellis said at the meeting that had he known about the inactivity issue, he would have rectified it.

“I thought I was registered and I just didn’t vote because there was nobody to vote for, actually,” Ellis said. “I wasn’t aware that it was expired. I don’t recall getting a notice because had I gotten one I would have fixed it and we wouldn’t be here.”

When asked following the meeting, McDonald said that Ellis was mailed a notice of inactivity on June 8, 2011. His registration was cancelled on Aug. 11, 2015.

“In the state of Ohio we have what is known as the Ohio Voter Records Maintenance Program that when you go for a period of time without any voter registration activity whether that’s signing a petition or voting, you’re placed onto a clock by which if you do not initiate any voter activity you can have your voter registration removed,” McDonald said at the Feb. 24 hearing.

“That law has been upheld all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. So we treated your (Ellis) voter record just like anybody else who met the parameters to be removed.”

Ellis was challenging the validity of the qualified elector requirement in Eastlake’s charter.

At the reconsideration hearing, Klammer reiterated his previous position.

“I stand by my legal opinion,” Klammer said. “I appreciate Mr. Ellis’ efforts to run. That’s what makes a community great. But one of the other things that makes Eastlake so great is our charter. And in this case the voters have spoken through what they want the qualifications to be for elected officials.”

Klammer added that the same requirements are needed for those seeking to run for city council.

“That’s just the way the voters have spoken when they adopted the charter,” he said.

Ellis was not the only candidate seeking to run for Eastlake mayor whose candidacy was rejected Feb. 11. Bob Spangenberg’s candidacy was rejected because he did not sign the date next to his signature on two of the four petitions he filed with the elections board. The signatures he collected on those pages were invalidated, leaving him with 34 valid signatures and 50 are needed to qualify for the primary.

The board accepted the petitions of incumbent Eastlake Mayor Dennis Morley at the Feb. 11 meeting.