Friday, February 11, 2000
Suspicious ballots topic of hearing
BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
HAMILTON — A man who lives in Cincinnati told Butler County Board of Elections officials Thursday that Jon Saylor encouraged him to get an absentee ballot and vote for him in the Fairfield City Council race.
Mr. Saylor, who won Fairfield's First Ward seat, is at the center of a board investigation of possible voter fraud during last year's election.
The board will report its findings to the Butler County Prosecutor's Office once hearings are complete, said Bob Mosketti, board director. Representatives of the prosecutor's office attended the hearing but were not involved in questioning witnesses.
At least a dozen questionable absentee ballots were counted during the November election, elections officials said. Mr. Saylor beat Mike Snyder by 142 votes.
About a dozen witnesses testified before the board during Thursday's hearing. Mr. Saylor was present with his attorney, but he made no statements.
Several people said they signed blank voter registration and absentee ballot request forms, even though they didn't live in Fairfield. Some witnesses said they gave their absentee ballots to Mr. Saylor.
Rick Adamski of Cincinnati told board officials that he agreed to register and vote in the Fairfield council contest, even though he did not live in Butler County.
“He requested that I vote for him in absentee ballot,” Mr. Adamski said. He said he agreed, then decided not to.
"
The investigation began when Butler County elections officials got a call from Mr. Adamski's mother, who received three absentee ballots at her Cincinnati home. The ballots were for her son and two other people she did not know, said said Betty McGary, deputy director of the elections board.
The three absentee ballots were returned unvoted to the board.
Mrs. McGary said absentee ballots also were sent to three of Mr. Saylor's relatives who registered as living in a Fairfield apartment leased by Mr. Saylor's girlfriend. But apartment manager Dan Nell said the woman didn't make any reference to others living with her, nor was anyone else seen around the two-bedroom apartment.
The ballots, which were sent to Ricky S. Saylor, Sam Saylor and Faye H. Saylor, were voted, returned and counted in the November election, Mrs. McGary said.
Another group of five absentee ballots with names on them were sent to the Cincinnati home of Linda Fatheree, who knows Mr. Saylor.
She said Mr. Saylor called her after she received the ballots, and said they were sent to her by mistake. She then gave them to him, she said.
“He assured me those were legitimate residents,” she said. “I don't think it makes any sense that it was accidental. I have no idea who those people are.”
The people whose names were on the ballots could not be found in two national computer searches, said Butler County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Mike Craft. He said either the names and birthdates on their registrations are wrong, or those people don't exist.
The ballots ended up being voted, returned and counted in the election, Ms. McGary said.
Mr. Saylor, on the advice of his attorney, did not testify before the board, nor would he comment on the investigation.
Mary Alice Saylor, Mr. Saylor's mother, said her son is the target of political enemies and has been threatened since he took office.
“I know and you know that somebody is pushing your buttons,” she told the board.
But Ms. McGary denied that.
“Jon Saylor was never a target when this investigation began,” she said. “He is not a target as we sit here this morning.”
The hearing will resume on Feb. 17.
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