Monroe County, Ohio, Records Request

Ohio Election Justice Campaign
Election Education Program

This is for Monroe County, Ohio. In which in their letter of explanation to David Ferrel, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Director of Elections refers to federally protected election records, and the reason they no longer have them. In that letter Margaret Hansen, the Director of the Monroe Board of Elections wrote in part,

"This letter is to inform you of the missing 2004 general election's unvoted ballots. According to our retention schedule we were allowed to dispose of the unvoted ballots after 60 days. Of course, we had to keep the voted ballots for 22 months."

Across this country, federal law requires that all election records from federal elections (that includes the US Presidency) be kept for 22 months. This includes unvoted ballots. Multiple Ohio counties besides Monroe claim to have a different record retention schedule, the OEJC is investigating this.

This is a very simple one item record request. If anyone needs assistance on asking for records in their own state, let us know.

Below is the record request letter.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

The Ohio Election Justice Campaign

Margaret Hansen
Director Monroe County Board of Elections
101 North Main Street
Courthouse Room 15
Woodsfield, OH 43793
(740) 472-0929
(740) 472-2517 Fax
[email protected]

December 10, 2007

Dear Margaret Hansen,

As per ORC 149.43 I request a copy of your record retention schedule for federal election records.

Thank You,

Paddy Shaffer
Director, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
(address removed for internet sharing)
(614) 761-0621
[email protected]

Cc: The Ohio Election Justice Campaign/font>