Lawsuit filed demanding recount in Marion County election
MARION, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) — Almost exactly a month after the November election a new lawsuit filed Monday claims there's a good chance your vote wasn't counted correctly if you voted in Marion County, Ohio.
Jeff Ratliff, who lost the race for county Prosecutor, is now suing Marion County's Board of Elections saying he wants a full hand count due to chaos surrounding the election. After the vote, Ratliff requested and paid for a hand recount of 19 of Marion County's 65 precincts. The embattled Board of Elections Director John Meyer said while an election recount would be done for all 19 precincts, only five percent of votes from those precincts would be recounted by hand.
In response Ratliff has now filed a lawsuit to order the recount he paid for. The lawsuit includes several allegations against Meyer spanning the last several months, from bias to theft in office, and most recently that 254 votes that weren’t discovered until November 19th.
Former Board of elections Director Chris Smith demanded answers saying of the tabulation machines, “There’s a green light and a red light. If all the green lights aren’t lit up you know cards are missing and it tells you which ones; how did that not get caught election night?”
“Yup the green light got missed," Meyer said admitting fault, "That’s your answer, I’m sorry if you don’t like it.”
Although the 254 votes made it to the final tally. Marion voters remain unsatisfied with the outcome of the election.
“I’m just offended they’re certifying this election when its truly rigged/. This is an asterisk election," Marion resident Tara Dyer said.
