Tuesday is the start of absentee voting in Ohio and one school board race in Clark County has an emotional issue to deal with. School board candidate Ron Lyons died recently, but his name will still appear on the ballot for the Tecumseh School Board race.
The 76-year-old Lyons was well liked in the area and served on the Tecumseh School Board and as a Bethel Township Trustee. The Air Force veteran died unexpectedly last week.
Matthew Tlachac, director of the Clark County Board of Elections, says federal voting law mandates that names appearing on the ballot must be completed 45 days before the election. So there wasn't any time to make a ballot change.
"All the voters who are part of that school district will receive a notice along with their absentee ballot stating that the candidate has withdrawn or deceased, in this case he was deceased. So his name will still appear on the ballot but votes cast for him will not be tabulated," Tlachac says.
According to Tlachac, supporters of Lyons, by law, can't designate anybody else to run in his place. He notes that, "The law does allow for a committee that was established by the candidate to appoint somebody for that position. That had to be done at the time of filing, when you file the petitions, and he did not designate a committee at all."