MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Former Trotwood Mayor Mary McDonald will be on the ballot for a Montgomery County Commissioner seat.
A tie-breaking vote from Columbus finalized the March primary race after a protest hearing about McDonald earlier this month.
“We’ve known this to be simply a distraction. Something that was just put out to silence the voice of the people,” Mary McDonald, the Republican Montgomery Co. Commissioner Candidate said.
McDonald announced a switch from the Democratic to the Republican party late last year.
News Center 7 covered a protest hearing on Jan. 16 where a lawyer representing the person who filed the protests argued McDonald should not be on the ballot.
The protest claimed the former Trotwood Mayor was not a member of the republican party and did not file her declaration of intent to run as a Republican correctly.
“The court said you cannot resign retroactively. You can’t engage in historical revisionism here,” Donald McTique, the Lawyer for Election protest said.
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McDonald’s Lawyer argued she followed all election laws that apply. After the Montgomery County Board of Elections voted in a 2-2 tie, all of the information and written arguments were sent to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office for a decision.
Secretary of State Frank La Rose said that the law allows for McDonald to be on the ballot, rejecting the protest with a 3-2 vote.
Now, Montgomery County Voters will see McDonald’s name on the March 19 Primary ballot. McDonald and current Democratic Commissioner Deb Liberman are both unopposed in their primaries for the seat. This means if they each get one vote they’ll face off in November.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s decision can still be challenged at the Ohio Supreme Court.