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An Ohio Law Requiring Multiple Elections Could Cost the 8th District $500,000

Ohio voting sticker
STATE OF OHIO

Residents in the 8th Congressional district in western Ohio may be getting a little vote-weary.

The people who used to be represented by House Speaker John Boehner are facing their third election since March and another one is ahead in November. 

March primary winners Republican Warren Davidson and Democrat Corey Foister ran in a special election in June for Boehner's seat. Davidson won.

He's back on the November ballot with the rest of Congress, but Foister dropped out. Democrat Steve Fought will be the only candidate in a special election Sept. 13, being held because of a state law governing withdrawals of candidates more than 90 days before the general election. 

State Rep. Dorothy Pelanda says it will cost the district a half a million dollars. 

“Until some incident happens like this, sometimes we just don’t realize how unfair a particular law is until it comes up.”

The Republican from Marysville is proposing to repeal that law, either in the lame-duck session this fall or in the budget next year. 

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.