Informing Democracy reviewed Directors, Deputy Directors, and members of Ohio County Boards of Elections to identify officials who could pose a threat to free and fair elections. We looked for statements or actions that indicate election denial, attempts to subvert election administration or undermine the faith in the system, the sharing of election conspiracy theories, and other antidemocratic sentiments. There were concerning findings in the backgrounds of 39 of the 528 Ohio officials researched — or 7% — spread across 33 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Concerning findings do not mean an official will seek to undermine the next election, just as a lack of findings is not a guarantee an official will faithfully execute their duties. This research provides guidance on where attention should be focused to ensure that elections are administered properly according to the law. Notably, research showed that the vast majority of local election officials are dedicated public servants, committed to running free and fair elections.
Four counties pose concern for fair election administration this November based on findings on members of County Boards of Elections.
Sixteen officials on County Boards of Elections were identified as being election deniers: 15 Board members and one Deputy Director of the Board. Steve Baker, a Perry County Board member, shared an election-denying political cartoon, and when questioned in the comments wrote, “do you honestly believe there was no voter fraud?” Pickaway County’s Sandy Darby posted “Biden will NEVER really be president. That weasel, along with communist democrats committed fraud. Don’t follow anything he says!” Tony Schroeder, a Board member in Putnam county, claimed “The fraud is being perpetrated in Madison, Detroit, and Philadelphia, all controlled by Democrats in states with Democrat Governors and Secretaries of State.” In a separate tweet, he said Biden would win Wisconsin “because the Democrats stuffed Milwaukee’s ballot boxes. Stuffed to overflowing, in fact, given the 101% turnout seen in a couple of them.”
Khadine Ritter, a Washington County Board of Elections member, is an election denier who urged Ohio to join Texas’s case to overturn other state’s election results, and advocated for battleground states to appoint alternate slates of electors. Perhaps most alarmingly, in December 2020 Ritter filmed and posted a video of a Milwaukee election official performing their job and accused them of wanting observers to behave “like obedient little lemmings.”
Research indicated that a handful of election officials in Ohio appeared to believe that Trump should be above the rule of law and that investigations into his behavior were election interference. Perry County Board member Steve Baker shared a post calling the January 6 committee a “Soviet show trial.” Similarly, Brown County Board member Betty Jo Ratliff shared claims that the federal indictment of Trump in August 2023 for election interference was an attack on the rule of law and that Special Counsel Jack Smith was “trying to influence the election.”
Hocking County Board member Michael Harris shared a Facebook post in November 2020 that appeared to celebrate citizens staging “an armed revolt against their corrupt local government.” Similarly, Jackson County Board member Kida Newell shared a post in March 2021 featuring a photo of George Washington reading “If I was alive I’d bitch slap all of you Americans for allowing this shit! Grow a pair of balls and take back your government.” John Weber on the Fulton County Board wrote of proposed gun safety laws “If you want my gun, come and take it - by force.”
Douglas Preisse, a Board member in Franklin County, was quoted in 2012 as being opposed to changing voting rules “to accommodate the urban -- read African-American -- voter turnout machine.”