Ann’s petitions
“Ann Nonomous” pulled petitions for seven local races around Butler County. They include:
• Middletown, Fairfield and Lakota school boards
• Hamilton and Monroe city councils
• Fairfield and Liberty township boards of trustees
Butler County Board of Elections members indicate “Nonomous” pulled petitions for a group she is a member of.
“Ann Nonomous” pulled petitions on Monday, Aug. 10, for the Fairfield Twp. Board of Trustees.
“Nonomous” also pulled petitions for the Hamilton and Monroe city councils, Middletown, Lakota and Fairfield school boards and Liberty Twp. Board of Trustees.
Tippi Slaughter, Butler County Board of Elections administrative assistant, confirmed it was one anonymous woman who picked up petitions for each of these election races.
“This lady indicated she was with a group, and she wouldn’t say what group she was a part of,” she said. “They were meeting that night and they were going to decide if members of this group were going to seek these offices for which she had petitions.”
Slaughter said Ohio law does not require a petition seeker to leave a name to pick up petitions. On occasion, someone will pick up a petition anonymously, she said.
“The board’s responsibility is to distribute current petition forms. There is nowhere in the law where it requires them to give us their name,” Slaughter said.
If and when the petitions are filed, their identities are part of the public record.
Fairfield Superintendent Cathy Milligan said it doesn’t make a difference whether someone pulled a petition anonymously.
“We encourage any citizen to become involved, whatever form that involvement might take,” she said. “It’s the first time in my experience that a petition has been pulled in this format.”
Fairfield Twp. Trustee Terry Scharnhorst, who is not up for election this cycle, said he’d be leery of anyone who’d pull a petition anonymously.
“I have a great respect for our free elections in this country, and I think to do this is really making a mockery of our elections system,” Scharnhorst said.
Slaughter said there has been a lot of interest in the local races. She cited Hamilton City Council and Hamilton mayor races.
“If you look at Hamilton City Council, we have 15 people who have pulled petition for Hamilton City Council. And five people who have pulled petitions for mayor,” Slaughter said.
The filing deadline for the Nov. 3 election is Aug. 20. The city of Fairfield’s election filing deadline has passed.
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or mpitman@coxohio.com.
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