(12-4-24) Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is a Republican, has determined that Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes can stay on the voter rolls in Summit County, after a challenge to her voter registration came during her campaign for a second term in Congress. The Summit County Board of Elections had deadlocked on the question along party lines, sending it to the secretary of state’s office.
Bill Rich chair of the Summit County Board of Elections
“Secretary LaRose sided with the two Democratic Summit County Board of Elections members, Valerie McKitrick and me, rejecting the ill-founded claim that Congresswoman Sykes resides in Franklin County rather than Summit County. It’s regrettable that so much time was devoted to what was obviously nothing more than a political stunt by the Republican Party.”
The challenge to the board of elections cited an ethical disclosure form filed by Sykes’ husband Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce. He wrote that Sykes resided in Columbus with him but then stated he wrote that out of an “abundance of caution.“
Republican members of the board had questioned where Sykes would live if she was no longer an elected official.
Republican board member Ray Weber said at a October hearing –
“Wouldn’t she want to be with her husband and family in Columbus? If you’re no longer in public office, or whatever, but your husband is down in the Columbus area, is your intention to go there? How wed are you to this area?”
In a letter to the board of elections, LaRose wrote this evidence –
“falls short of the ‘clear and convincing’ burden of proof.”
Sykes defeated Republican Kevin Coughlin with 51% of the vote in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District.
Mercer County Outlook 