Early and absentee voting is underway for Whitehall’s special recall election, in which voters will decide if the city’s mayor and two council members will retain their respective seats.
Whitehall Mayor Michael Bivens and at-large council members Amy Harcar and Lori Elmore have been targeted in the recall.
A total of 134 people had cast their ballots as of the afternoon of June 4, according to data from the Franklin County Board of Elections. Fifty-five of those were early votes, and 79 were absentee mail votes. There are 11,325 registered voters in Whitehall, according to the board. The results of the election will be posted on the board’s website after the polls close June 23.
The recall election is the result of petition signatures gathered by Whitehall for All, a group of city residents who have accused the trio of corruption and financial mismanagement. The group has not provided any evidence to support their accusations.
City Treasurer Trevel Balser, who is the husband of Patricia Balser, one of the people involved in the recall effort, said during a May council meeting that the city’s finances are in fine condition.
City Auditor Shaquille Alexander has also told the City Council during several of its meetings that Whitehall’s finances are the best they’ve been in decades.
“Our financial audits return sound opinions,” Alexander said in a statement to The Dispatch. “We have a robust general fund, unprecedented and growing reserves, and we are making substantial investment in infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation. Most notably, the City Treasurer shares my assessment of where our finances stand.
“No city stumbles into clean audits and growing reserves,” Alexander said. “This is the product of deliberate, disciplined policy choices. Numbers don’t lie.”
The numbers for the cost of this recall election to the city of Whitehall are $40,000.
Opponents of the recall have said the effort is motivated by racism, pointing to racist and anti-immigrant comments on Whitehall for All’s Facebook page and the fact that Bivens is the city’s first Black mayor and Elmore is the first Black woman to sit on the City Council. Harcar is White but regularly works with the immigrant community in her other role at a nonprofit that provides social services to immigrants.
The recall campaign is also being partly financed by the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, The Dispatch previously reported. Lodge members have also been operating a Facebook page called “Whitehall Deserves Better,” which regularly mocks Bivens, Harcar and Elmore by using AI-generated images.
The last time Whitehall saw a recall election was in November 2009, when council member Jacquelyn Thompson was ousted by 75% of voters and immediately lost her position on the City Council.
What is the early voting and absentee voting schedule?
Early in-person voting began May 26 and will run through June 12 at the Franklin County Board of Elections, 1700 Morse Road. Voters may cast ballots from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the elections board.
On June 15, 17 and 18, early voting will run from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. On June 16, early voting will run from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There will be no early voting on June 19 because Juneteenth is a federal holiday.
On June 20, early voting will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. On the last day of early in-person voting on June 21, voting hours will run from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The special election day will be June 23, with polls open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Residents interested in absentee voting may either request an application by contacting the county Board of Elections at 614-525-3100 or visiting the elections board website and downloading and printing their own. Once the application is submitted to the board, voters will receive their ballot by mail.
Absentee ballots for the special election must be filled out and returned to the county elections board by 7:30 p.m. on June 23. Failure to do so means the ballot will not be counted.
Where will voting locations be on special election day, June 23?
Voters can cast their ballots on June 23 at the following locations:
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, ShahidMeighan on X and shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Early voting in Whitehall recall election underway
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
