John Stafford, who spearheaded the "vote no" campaign against the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school levy in May, was one of two district residents, Nick Kulesza of Bellbrook being the other, whose petitions were not certified for the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school board race.
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Kulesza was missing a portion of the petitions he printed off and Stafford did not sign the petitions he submitted in all the required fields, both of which are required under Ohio elections laws, according to John Caupp, Greene County elections board chairman.
“The secretary of state’s election manual is pretty cut and dry. Not signing a petition is a fatal error per the secretary of state’s office,” Caupp said. “If a circulator does not sign a petition, that would invalidate it. If whoever is being nominated doesn’t sign, that’s an error.”
A total of 14 county residents’ petitions were rejected by the board for various reasons. Caupp said “the fatal errors” included apparent oversights, such as writing the wrong number of signatures at the top of each petition.
“One gentleman needed 10 signatures. He turned in 32. By state law, you can’t go over three times the number of required signatures. By going over 30, that’s an error,” Caupp said.
Stafford provided the Dayton Daily News the three petitions that he circulated in the Sugarcreek Twp., Bellbrook communities. According to the documents, he gathered a total of 55 signatures and only three were deemed invalid by the elections board. Twenty-five valid signatures were required to be nominated for the race.
The space for “signature of candidate” is blank on the front of each petition, but Stafford did sign the spaces for the circulator’s signature.
Stafford declined to comment for this story, but he posted a statement on the Facebook page he administers — "Vote NO On Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools Levy."
"I will have to wait until another election," Stafford's post reads. "It does not stop what we have started and in some ways will make it easier that I am not on the board as some will clim [sic] conflict of interest when the suits are filed."
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Voters in May rejected the proposed new tax for Bellbrook-Sugarcreek schools 63 to 37 percent. The board decided not to return to the ballot with a new proposal in November.
Five candidates were certified to run for two seats on the school board, including incumbents Elizabeth Betz and David Carpenter and challengers Heidi Anderson, Kevin Price and Karen Long.
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