The person elected to the position of Nelsonville city auditor has filed a legal action asking a court to order that she be allowed to occupy the office.
The filing is part of an ongoing legal saga that has left the city with two rival governments each claiming legitimacy.
Andrea Thompson-Hashman was elected city auditor in November. She ran for the position under what was to be a new Nelsonville government starting Jan. 1.
This new government was called for under a citizen initiative voters passed in November 2024. Known as Issue 23, it was intended to repeal the city’s charter government and return it to what’s known as a statutory government.
However, the charter council ended up voting to repeal Issue 23, claiming it has the power under the charter to overturn citizen initiatives.
But the council was unable to get the candidates running for the new statutory government removed from the November 2025 ballot.
Thompson-Hashman says that after the election, she tried to take office on Jan. 5 but was denied access by the city’s police chief, who was also the acting city manager at the time.
In February, she and other members of the newly elected statutory government filed what’s known as a quo warranto action with the 4th District Court of Appeals.
A quo warranto is used to challenge someone’s right to hold office. In this case, the statutory government was challenging the charter government’s right to continue to hold office, arguing the repeal of Issue 23 was invalid and therefore the charter government no longer existed.
The court said it lacked jurisdiction to resolve the case. That decision is now before the Ohio Supreme Court on appeal.
The new legal action Thompson-Hashman has filed is a petition for mandamus, which is used to ask a court to order a government official to do something.
She wants the court to order that Brian Elkins, who was appointed in April to serve as city auditor, be removed and that she be allowed to occupy the position.
The difference here is that instead of arguing that the charter government is unlawfully holding office, Thompson-Hashman is instead arguing she has a superior right to occupy the auditor’s office.
Thompson-Hashman rests her argument on an Ohio Supreme Court decision in which the court said that someone who ran for office and has a certificate of election showing they won has a stronger claim to that office than someone without such a certificate.
No one ran for auditor under the charter government in November, leaving Thompson-Hashman as the only person elected to the position.
She says it doesn’t matter that she ran to fill the position in the statutory government. She argues the Supreme Court decision makes clear that she should be able to occupy the office regardless of which government the city is operating under until the dispute over which is the legitimate Nelsonville government ultimately gets resolved.
WOUB reached out to the president of Nelsonville’s charter council for comment. The story will be updated with any comment provided.