Ohio Elections Commission urges state senators to restore funding in budget
The future is far from certain for the Ohio Elections Commission after House budget drafters moved to eliminate the agency. Now the state Senate gets its turn to tweak the two-year spending plan.
OEC executive director Phil Richter went before a Senate committee last week to make the case for his agency.
The Ohio Elections Commission is a seven-member body that operates as an independent agency with oversight of campaign finance laws. The governor appoints three Democrats and three Republicans who in turn select the unaffiliated seventh member of the commission.
Richter warned state senators that turning campaign finance laws over to an official appointed by the secretary of state or the county board of elections will create chaos.
'Instead of one statewide decision-making body, there will be 89 separate applications of Ohio's campaign finance laws,' he said. 'Instead of one bipartisan, collegial panel, there could be 89 separate decisions made along party lines.'
Richter added the new responsibilities could create an 'unfunded mandate' for the offices that would begin handling campaign finance cases. He also noted the Ohio House version of the budget zeroes out funding for the commission starting in July, but doesn't actually abolish the agency until Jan. 1 next year.
'It is unconscionable to me,' Richter said, 'that the current budget would expect the commission and its staff to work for six months without any funding.'
Critics argue the commission process is too slow and too burdensome for many of the people that come before it. They contend the process itself — driving multiple times to Columbus to sit for hearings — is more punitive than the OEC's eventual fines.
State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, who's leading the House budget process has been on the receiving end of a long-running campaign finance complaint.
'I've had a four-year front row seat to how inept this process is,' he said in an interview last month.
Far from seeing that as a conflict of interest, he argued 'those who have spent years being drug through the mud' are the best ones to reform an agency.
Lawmakers' questions
State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, D-Toledo, asked if the House's plan would lead to a 'patchwork of decisions.'
'That's a very real possibility,' Richter said, adding that it would be 'challenge' to have the same office running elections and judging campaign finance violations and still deal in an 'independent, nonpartisan, unbiased way.'
The committee chairman, state Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, wondered what was so bad about the House's plan. He described serving on a board that got advice from the county prosecutor.
'What's the problem with that model, as long as they have an assistant prosecutor who has knowledge of election laws?' he asked.
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Richter argued the commission would be putting itself 'into a situation where that partisan factor is always there.'
Without an independent voice to break a potential tie between the two Democrats and two Republicans on a board, he said, decisions could easily break along partisan lines.
State Sen. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, complained about candidates putting up untruthful signs. As a hypothetical, he described hearing complaints about a candidate using a sign describing themselves as a commissioner when they haven't yet won office.
'The commission is not going to look at it for 45 to 60 days — that person is either going to be elected or lose their election by the time it happens,' Koehler said. 'It's almost as if, again, I've said these words: There's really nothing you can do.'
Richter acknowledged his frustration but explained there's little the commission can do following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Ohio's law against false campaign statements.
Koehler pressed Richter to ensure the commission holds people accountable. He argued too many candidates get fines that amount to a slap on the wrist for significant violations.
'I don't know what the Senate is going to do,' Koehler said about the possibility of restoring funding for the Ohio Elections Commission. 'If that happens, I'm just going to say that I hope the election commission uses more teeth.'
Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.
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