Nearly a month after the 2024 election, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has determined Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes can stay on the voter rolls in Summit County, after a challenge to her voter registration came during her campaign for a second term in Congress. The Summit County Board of Elections had deadlocked on the question along party lines, sending it to the secretary of state's office.
"Secretary LaRose sided with the two Democratic Summit County Board of Elections members, Valerie McKitrick and me, rejecting the ill-founded claim that Congresswoman Sykes resides in Franklin County rather than Summit County," Bill Rich, who is also chair of the board of elections, said in a statement. "It’s regrettable that so much time was devoted to what was obviously nothing more than a political stunt by the Republican Party."
The challenge to the board of elections cited an ethical disclosure form filed by Sykes' husband Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce. He initially wrote that Sykes resided in Columbus with him but then stated he wrote that out of an "abundance of caution," elections lawyer Dan McTigue said at a board of elections hearing in October.
Sykes also filed an affidavit with documents including a pay stub, car lease and auto insurance that lists her address in Akron. She wrote she visits Boyce in Columbus, and he visits her in Akron.
Republican members of the board had questioned where Sykes would live if she was no longer an elected official.
“Wouldn’t she want to be with her husband and family in Columbus?” Republican board member Ray Weber said at the October hearing. “If you’re no longer in public office, or whatever, but your husband is down in the Columbus area, is your intention to go there? How wed are you to this area?”
In a letter to the board of elections, LaRose wrote this evidence "falls short of the 'clear and convincing' burden of proof."
The challenge came as Sykes was in a tight race for a second term in Congress against Republican Kevin Coughlin, which she won with 51% of the vote, according to the Associated Press.
Sykes represents Ohio's 13th Congressional District, which includes all of Summit County and parts of Portage and Stark counties.
