WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Lake County Board of Elections on Friday shot down a complaint the Ohio Republican Party filed the previous day with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, issuing a statement that said Democratic congressional candidate Hillary O’Connor Mueri did not cast an absentee ballot in Ohio’s 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

The board’s statement is vindication for Mueri, whom the GOP accused of improperly casting a Lake County absentee ballot in Ohio’s 2008 Democratic primary after voting in California’s 2008 Democratic presidential primary the previous month.

The Lake County elections board said it mailed an absentee ballot to Mueri on Feb. 5, 2008, but she did not return it or otherwise vote in Ohio’s March 4, 2008 presidential primary. The statement said the elections board had a policy in 2008 that granted voter history credit to voters who applied to vote absentee, irrespective of whether the voter returned their ballot. That policy has since been changed, elections board Director R. Ross McDonald said in an interview.

Because of the old policy, McDonald said a notarized record of Mueri’s voting history that Republicans submitted with their complaint shows Mueri voted in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary even though she didn’t return the absentee ballot. He said Lake County election officials were able to determine that she didn’t return her ballot after searching their records at the request of Mueri’s campaign manager.

He said Lake County election officials weren’t aware the Ohio Republican Party was going to file a complaint focusing on Mueri’s absentee ballot, and they were “never asked to research the subject by any parties” until Friday.

This is the voting record the Ohio Republican Party submitted with their complaint to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, which erroneously indicates Mueri voted in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary:

Mueri is seeking the congressional seat held by Bainbridge Township Republican Rep. Dave Joyce, which includes all of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties and parts of Cuyahoga, Summit, Portage and Trumbull counties.

“As a combat veteran Naval Flight Officer, honor is something I take seriously," said a statement from Mueri. "David Joyce and political cronies have crossed a line. I have put my life on the line to defend our way of life and the free elections we hold so dear. When I decided to continue my service and run for Congress to fight for those in Northeast Ohio that have been forgotten for so long, I knew it would be tough. What I did not expect was to be slandered and have my honor falsely questioned. On behalf of every veteran who tried to cast their vote far from home, I am calling on Congressman Joyce to condemn this slanderous report.”

The Ohio Republican Party complaint claimed that Mueri illegally voted in two states, which would be a fourth-degree felony. A GOP spokesman said the party obtained Mueri’s voting history from Lake County through repeated Freedom of Information Act requests, and the information Lake County supplied showed Mueri voted by absentee ballot in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. He said an assistant Lake County prosecutor told party officials that notations in Mueri’s voting record showed she voted absentee in the election at issue, and Lake County didn’t disclose any “alleged policy change” when the initial records request was filed, which would have been “highly relevant to the records that were requested.”

The GOP does not seem willing to drop the complaint, despite the elections board’s findings. Ohio Republican Party Executive Director Rob Secaur, who filed Thursday’s complaint, issued this statement in response to the statement from Lake County: “As my complaint states ‘No person shall vote or attempt to vote more than once at the same election by any means.’ We look forward to the results of the Attorney General’s investigation into this matter.”

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