The Summit County Board of Elections wants to know how Ohio’s other large counties are handling the job of auditing campaign finance reports.
The board isn’t just curious. They’re looking for a solution to a problem: Summit County is three years behind in reviewing hundreds of reports documenting cash donations and non-cash contributions and spending by candidates and political action committees.
The four-member board agreed Monday to conduct a survey of how the state’s 12 largest counties handle auditing the campaign finance reports.
“I can’t imagine we’re the only people who are having this trouble, but if we are, we need to find out what they’re going — if there is a better way to do this,” said county GOP Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, one of two Republican board members. “Maybe we need more personnel; maybe we need to hire some accounting firms.”
Arshinkoff said the backlog must be fixed because failing to review the reports on a timely basis undermines enforcement of the state’s election laws.
He pointed out that the Ohio Elections Commission, which recommends prosecution for failing to accurately disclose how campaigns are financed, has indicated it won’t accept referrals of cases more than two years old.
Arshinkoff requested the survey in his first day back on the board after a three-year absence. He left the board in 2008 when Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s secretary of state at the time and a Democrat, refused to reappoint him to the post he had held for 29 years amid complaints of harassment from staff members who said Arshinkoff promoted an overly partisan workplace.
Last month, Jon Husted, Brunner’s successor as secretary of state and a Republican, appointed Arshinkoff to the board. He had been nominated by the Summit County GOP Executive Committee to replace Brian Daley, who resigned June 27 to take a job as Husted’s regional liaison.
There were no signs of political rancor at Monday’s meeting. The vote for the survey was unanimous after Arshinkoff immediately accepted a suggestion from Wayne Jones, chairman of the Summit County Democratic Party and one of two Democrats on the elections board. Jones said the survey should include the secretary of state’s office, which reviews the financial reports of candidates running for statewide offices and also may be backlogged.
“I think they’re back to 2008, too,” Jones said.
A spokesman for the secretary of state could not confirm a backlog.
Ron Koehler, the county’s elections director, said the finance reports of a few Democrats who ran in 2008 and all the Democratic candidates from 2009 still need to be reviewed. About 20 percent of the Republicans filing in 2009 also remain to be looked over.
None of the 563 reports filed in 2010 by candidates and political action committees or the 41 filed so far this year has been reviewed.
Koehler said two staff members review the financial reports, although the one handling the Democratic reports was reassigned for six weeks last year to oversee early voting at the Job Center on Tallmadge Avenue.
None of the board members criticized the work of the staff members.
“Maybe two people just can’t do it,” Arshinkoff said, noting the difficulty of checking all the receipts, canceled checks and other documentation filed with the reports. “It’s like two people trying to row up Niagara Falls.”
Arshinkoff said he wanted the survey of other counties finished by the end of the year.
“We need this information so that we can come up with a system that is going to work,” he said.
In other action Monday, the board approved spending $21,831 for 90,962 ballots for the Sept. 13 primary.
Koehler said 55,386 ballots would be for Akron’s Democratic primary — three times the number of registered Democrats in the city. Koehler said the board must be ready for a larger turnout because of the contested mayoral contest.
Mayor Don Plusquellic faces two challengers, longtime Councilman Michael D. Williams and Janice O. Davis, a political newcomer. The GOP mayoral primary also is contested.
“I think it’s going to be a very hot election,” Arshinkoff said.
David Knox can be reached at 330-996-3532 or dknox@thebeaconjournal.com