“This has been among the most difficult and obstructive I’ve ever seen anyone be in an official proceeding,” he said. “I would like you to please reconsider what you have voted on today.”
The Kettering council race has three certified candidates — Laura Arber, Dan Palmer and Tyler Scott — running for two at-large seats. No incumbents are running because Jacque Fisher, vice mayor and at-large councilwoman, reached her term limit and is unable to run again, and Jyl Hall resigned her seat last month because she moved to Kentucky.
The city of Kettering’s charter requires candidates to collect 200 signatures on their nominating petitions. Smith filed his petition with 237 signatures on the Aug. 21 deadline. He later found out the elections board invalidated 48, including 14 due to signature verification. He was short nine signatures.
Smith’s campaign retained two notaries public and went to the homes of those voters over Labor Day weekend and acquired 13 signed and notarized affidavits, which Smith submitted to the board of elections on Sept. 4.
Montgomery County Board of Elections Chair Rhine McLin, a Democrat, asked Smith to consider filing forms to schedule a reconsideration hearing, saying she was not aware of the affidavits he presented to elections board staff.
“Were any of you aware about the affidavits? Because there is precedent on these affidavits,” McLin asked board members Erik Blaine, Thomas Routsong and Mohamed Al-Hamdani.
“I was not,” said Blaine. “But I don’t think, madame chair, that’s an accurate statement.”
“OK,” McLin replied, turning to Smith. “You need to file a reconsideration. But it needs to be fast.”
Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Jeff Rezabek did not respond to Smith’s claims during Tuesday’s board meeting.
However, when reached Wednesday Rezabek said that Smith’s petition was final when he filed it on the Aug. 21 deadline and the affidavits were not included at that point.
“The difficulty is I can only go on the signatures on the date you file,” he said.
Smith filed for a reconsideration hearing — Rezabek said he filed twice — and if the elections board opts to hold a hearing the affidavits would be considered at that time, the elections director said.
After Smith’s petition was rejected, he addressed Kettering City Council during the Tuesday evening meeting and asked the council to look at what can be done in the charter to formalize the nominating petition process.
“The director said that there was no law that compels him to require him to look at the affidavits or even show them to the board,” Smith said.
Mayor Peggy Lehner said there seems to be increasing numbers of these types of situations and that the council could have some discussions with the city law director.
“I appreciate your trying to run. Hopefully your appeal will work out and you’ll wind up on the ballot. If not, don’t give up,” Lehner said.
If the board opts to conduct a hearing by midweek there will be enough time for Smith to be on the Nov. 4 ballot, if the board determines he meets the signature requirement.
It is not uncommon for candidates to fail to meet the signature requirements. The board also rejected the petitions of a Riverside man who was short one signature to run for school board, Rezabek said.
“We usually will recommend, again, that’s up to the candidate themselves, to at least double the number of signatures that you require,” Rezabek said.
Petitions could have signatures rejected for any number of reasons, such as the person is not a registered voter; the address on file doesn’t match the petition; the person does not live within the jurisdiction; duplicate signatures; the signee doesn’t list an address; or in some cases the petition doesn’t have accurate date or race information.
“We do offer the opportunity prior to your filing to check all those signatures or check all those addresses. I don’t know if (Smith) did that or not,” said Rezabek, who added that he did do that after he filed.
