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Last updated on Wednesday, May 2, 2018
(BEDFORD) - Some political candidates had to address campaign violations during a hearing with the Lawrence County Election Board. Two other candidates were alerted to signage violations.
According to a draft of the minutes from Monday's Lawrence County Election Board meeting, Timothy Morrow and Gary Scherschel were alerted to violations.
Morrow, a Republican candidate for Perry Township trustee, was fined $100 for not properly filing a campaign finance report.
According to the minutes, Morrow blamed the clerk's office staff, saying he was misinformed of the requirements and that he was not at fault. He also mentioned that his grandmother had passed away, so he did not get the courtesy reminder phone call until April 23.
Election board Chairman John Williams explained that no one is required to contact candidates to remind them of deadlines, but that it is just a courtesy.
Gary Scherschel, Republican candidate for Indian Creek Township trustee was fined for not properly labeling his campaign signs.
Election board member Don Robertson verified the signs were properly labeled as of April 24, when he did a visual inspection.
Scherschel told the board there was an originally handwritten disclaimers on one side of the sign that he later replaced with a label stating, "Paid for by Gary Scherschel." The label is required to be on both sides of the sign. Scherschel says it was a misunderstanding and says he tried to correct it.
Robertson noted that new labels are larger and posted on both sides, but some signs had not been changed and were not of seven-point font, which are required for sign disclaimers.
Williams says no one is an expert in font size, and believes Scherschel had made a good attempt to fix the issue by affixing labels to his signs.
Scherschel avoided a $100 fine for his errors by a vote from the board.
Robertson produced letters with photographic evidence that county council candidate Dan Wade and Prosecutor Michelle Woodward also committed signage violations. He received the information anonymously by mail to his address.
Both Wade and Woodward were notified about the violations and are scheduled to answer the complaint during a hearing Thursday morning at 9:!5 a.m.
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