Childrey Certification Stands

On Thursday January 18th, the Mercer County Board of Elections held a meeting to discuss the protest filed against the Arienne Childrey campaign. Arienne Childrey, along with allies for her campaign, as well as Mercer County Republican Party Chair Robert Hibner were in attendance.

The BOE made a motion to invalidate the protest filed by Hibner - finding that he lacked standing to file such protest, as he was not a member of the Democratic Party and had no intention to change his party affiliation. Following the invalidation vote, the board was asked if they would like to reconsider the certification of Arienne Childrey. The board declined to do so and closed the meeting.

Following the meeting, the BOE released the following statement:

“Under Ohio law, protests against a candidate for party nomination or for election to an office or position can only be filed by a qualified elector of the same political party as the candidate. In this instance, Mr. Hibner is a registered as a republican, and cannot validly file a protest against the democratic party candidate. Today the Board of Elections confirmed the decision to invalidate the protest. The Board took no further action and Candidate Childrey will appear on the ballot.”

The Childrey campaign is pleased with the decision of the board and looks forward to continuing to fight for ALL constituents of the 84th district.

Video of the hearing is included below: