Columbus attorney appointed to review absentees

A special investigator from Columbus is looking into the 92 absentee ballots that recently came under the scrutiny of the Lawrence County Board of Elections.

Freddie Hayes, the newest member of the board and a Republican, filed the challenge on the absentees Monday.

“When they put me on there to make sure the election is run fair and equal, I think this is a problem,” Hayes said.

Typically in the case of a ballot challenge the county board would hold a hearing.

However Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has appointed Andrew Baker, a Columbus attorney, who is in Ironton today reviewing the ballots in question.

“A letter will be sent to the board notifying them of what he will be doing,” Kevin Kidder of the Secretary of State’s office said Tuesday. “He will investigate and then he will report back any findings to the Secretary of State’s office. Our office has the authority under Ohio law to investigate any allegations of irregularities of elections.”

The issue started when employees at the board noticed a number of applications for absentee ballots were going to one of two post office box numbers. When voters apply for an absentee ballot, they are allowed to have the ballot sent to an address other than their home location.

After elections board workers noticed the same post office boxes appeared repeatedly, they started to make random calls to confirm whether the voters wanted their ballots sent to their home or the second address, according to Cathy Overbeck, elections board director.

On most calls the workers found that the phones were disconnected. Those they did get in touch with said they wanted the ballot sent to their home address.

But all of the applications had listed that the absentee ballots were to be sent either in care of Russ Bennett, P.O. Box 829 Proctorville or Charles Maynard P.O. Box 4616, Ironton.

Bennett denied any knowledge about the ballots.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Bennett said. “Now I am telling you I rented that box but I don’t have anything to do with those absentee ballots.”

Maynard did not return a phone call made to his home.

Since 2008 Maynard has voted as a Democrat. Before that he voted as a Republican. Bennett had voted Democrat since 1986 until he ran for Lawrence County Sheriff in 2008, which he did as an Independent. In 2010 he voted Democrat.

“ Secretary Brunner takes allegations of irregularities very seriously and appointing an investigator to look into any possible irregularities demonstrates that fact,” Kidder said.