Possible election fraud investigated in Marion, Ohio

[GeorgiaModerate]

Investigators are looking into possible election fraud in Marion ahead of the 2019 election. Authorities are investigating whether the Marion County Republican Party broke the law with campaign handouts that are designed to look like sample ballots.

(Update) Republican candidate for Marion City Auditor Robert Landon and Marion County Republican Party official, John Matthews have been charged with distributing phony sample ballots.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/possible-election-fraud-investigated-in-marion

[Adam Griffin]

I'm honestly kind of surprised this is against the law. I don't think it should be illegal for candidates, parties and/or organizations to hand out "sample ballots" highlighting where their candidates appear on the ballot (in GA, I know many who do it, whether it's illegal or not). I can understand using a different color paper, though.

Of course, in this particular case, the candidates have partisan identifiers on the ballot, so the whole process is a bit moot anyway.

[ibagli]

I'm not convinced that the law they were charged under applies to the things they handed out:

Sample ballots may be printed by the board of elections for all general elections. The ballots shall be printed on colored paper, and "Sample Ballot" shall be plainly printed in boldface type on the face of each ballot. In counties of less than one hundred thousand population, the board may print not more than five hundred sample ballots; in all other counties, it may print not more than one thousand sample ballots. The sample ballots shall not be distributed by a political party or a candidate, nor shall a political party or candidate cause their title or name to be imprinted on sample ballots.

The way I read it, it implicitly only applies to the limited number of sample ballots that can be printed on colored paper by the Board of Elections, not to anything you print yourself.