The head of the Lucas County Board of Elections said Tuesday she is investigating a complaint that a Spencer Township trustee who was on the ballot Nov. 7 was inappropriately inside the polling location on Election Day.
The development came one day after the elections board certified the final vote for Lucas County, awarding one of the contested Spencer Township trustee seats to incumbent Michael Hood.
Election Night’s unofficial vote totals previously suggested challenger Kris Ruhl was ahead 179 votes to Mr. Hood’s 178. On Monday, the elections board crowned Mr. Hood as a winner along with incumbent Trustee Shawn Valentine. Mr. Hood defeated Mr. Rhul by 182 to 181 votes in the final official vote count. Mr. Valentine received 229 votes.
The vote change came about because of the addition of provisional ballots that had to be checked for validity, and absentee ballots that arrived Election Day, Nov. 7.
Mr. Hood said he was relieved to have won and was sure he would end up the winner.
“I feel vindicated. It was something within me that I always believed that was going to turn out to be the case. Out of all the elections I’ve been in this was probably the most difficult because there was so much going on that seemed to be working not in my favor,” Mr. Hood said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Hood filed a complaint with the board of elections and accused Mr. Valentine of being in a polling location after polls closed.
Elections Director LaVera Scott said she is investigating. She said no candidates should be in polling locations unless they are there to vote.
The complaint, signed by Marcia Lindsay, who worked the election that day, said the trustee was at the polling table “trying to look at ballots before I noticed and had to tell the rovers he was not allowed in the building.”
Mr. Valentine denied any wrongdoing and said he went into the building to look at the early vote totals, which are routinely posted on a wall or to a window when the election is done. He also inquired as to how many provisional and paper ballots there were.
“I asked how many provisional and paper ballots had been filed. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions, I do believe,” Mr. Valentine said.
Provisional ballots are kept in sealed envelopes until the elections board staff verifies that the ballot was cast by a valid registered voter.
Mr. Hood last week filed a separate complaint with the Lucas County Board of Elections accusing five people — relatives of Mr. Valentine — of voting from an illegitimate address.
Mr. Valentine in a written message to The Blade said Mr. Hood’s allegations about the address in question “were previously resolved by the board of elections in the spring of 2016,” referring to a similar complaint raised by a county poll worker last year which was subsequently dismissed by officials.
“Re-submitting a duplicate complaint serves no legitimate purpose and only further exposes our community to the chaotic political culture that once plagued our township,” he said in the message.
Because the difference is between less than half of 1 percent of the total votes, the race will go through an automatic recount on Monday, Ms. Scott said.
Mr. Hood was first elected to the Spencer Township Board of Trustees in 1986 and has served as a trustee since then.
The face for Toledo Municipal Housing Court judge is also within the one-half of 1 percent margin for a mandatory recount. Democrat Joe Howe defeated Republican Jim Anderson for the seat now held by Judge C. Allen McConnell — who was barred by an age limit from seeking re-election — by only 130 votes. The gap narrowed by 14 votes after provisional and absentee ballots were added to the count.
Mr. Howe, 46, is an assistant city prosecutor in the Housing Court while Mr. Anderson, 48, the endorsed Republican candidate, worked as Judge McConnell's law clerk and bailiff from 2007 to 2010.
Mr. Howe defeated Mr. Anderson by 20,881 to 20,751, according to the certified results.
Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com, 419-724-6058, or on Twitter @TomFTroy.
First Published November 21, 2017, 2:41 p.m.
