School board candidate worked precinct poll for 3 hours
A Talawanda Board of Education candidate served at his precinct’s polling location on Election Day.
The Butler County Board of Elections (BoE) said in a news release a candidate for the Talawanda Board of Education was placed as a precinct election official at his precinct’s polling location on Election Day.
Art Sauerwein, campaign manager for candidate Tom Heisler, confirmed Heisler was serving at his precinct’s polling location Tuesday between 6:30 a.m. and 9:32 a.m.
According to the release, candidates may only work as precinct election officials outside of the precincts they’re running in.
Heisler ultimately did not win the election to gain a seat on the board but had the third highest votes in unofficial results with 21.93% of the vote.
Sauerwein told the Oxford Free Press Heisler has been a precinct official for the past six years in Reily Township and, on Tuesday morning, Heisler was simply being a “bipartisan observer” and “wasn’t logged into any data.”
Sauerwein said Heisler had “no ill intentions” and was “just trying to help the community.”
“It won’t happen again,” Sauerwein said.
BoE Director Nicole Unzicker said in the release, “The location supervisor was promptly contacted and notified that the precinct election official who was also a candidate must exit the polling location immediately.”
She confirmed in the release Heisler was not wearing any campaign attire or campaigning for office while performing his duties as a precinct election official and departed the premises without incident.
“The matter is currently under review, and corrective actions are being implemented to prevent a recurrence,” the BoE said in the release.
Unzicker told the Oxford Free Press on election night the BoE had notified the Butler County Prosecuting Attorney’s office of the incident and was waiting to hear back.
Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Gmoser told the Oxford Free Press Wednesday afternoon, he reviewed the circumstances surrounding Heisler’s appearance at the polling location.
Gmoser said, although Heisler’s presence at the polling location was a violation, “He removed himself, did not continue on in that capacity. To that extent, I thought that the issue was acknowledged based upon the facts of the case.”
