The Ohio Supreme Court upheld a decision removing a Delaware County Board of Elections member as a registered voter as well as a candidate for the May primary election.
In a 7-0 decision on May 3, the state’s highest court dismissed the appeal brought by Melanie Leneghan, a Delaware County Board of Elections member and the women’s Republican State Central Committee District 19 representative.
The Supreme Court decision comes after Leneghan appealed a 2-1 vote from April 10 by the county elections board to cancel her voter registration and her candidacy to retain her state central committee seat. Another Republican filed a challenge saying Leneghan no longer lived in the state after she sold her home in January 2025.
This decision means Leneghan cannot vote in the upcoming May 5 primary and votes for her for the central committee seat will not be counted.
Neither the Ohio Secretary of State’s website nor the office’s 2026 candidate guide specifies how much time a person needs to spend in Ohio to be considered a resident. Voters need to be a resident for at least 30 days immediately before the election to qualify as a voter, and their voting residence is their fixed home, meaning the place where they intend to return whenever they are away.
Leneghan argued the board did not correctly consider her intent to return to Delaware County.
“The problem with Leneghan’s ‘intent’ argument is that she glosses over the requirement that intent must be tied to a fixed ‘habitation,'” the opinion says. “A person’s ‘intention of returning’ must be tied to a fixed habitation, not simply to the county in general.”
It was not immediately clear how the decision affects Leneghan’s seat on the county Board of Elections. A spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office previously told The Dispatch it was waiting for the outcome of the Ohio Supreme Court case before making any final determinations on her status as a board member.
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The saga surrounding Leneghan’s residency has been ongoing for months after Velva Dunn, a Delaware County Republican Party Central Committee member, filed the challenge Feb. 20, alleging that Leneghan lives in South Carolina.
Leneghan sold her Powell home in January 2025 and then updated her voting address to a Liberty Township home and her registered mailing address to a Galena home on South Old 3C Highway, which has been owned by Catherine Nelson since May 2013. In December 2025, Leneghan updated her voter registration address to Nelson’s Galena home.
Leneghan previously told The Dispatch she travels for work and that she spends her time between Ohio and South Carolina, where she owns two properties.
The Delaware County Board of Elections was supposed to hold a residency hearing March 5 but the two Democrat members, Ed Helvey and Peg Watkins, recused themselves over concerns about public perception, saying that their actions could be seen as partisan no matter which way they voted.
Dunn filed with the Ohio Supreme Court days later asking the court to force the remaining three elections board members to vote on the challenge. The court ruled March 27 that the county elections board had to hold the hearing.
While waiting for the Supreme Court decision, though, Nelson’s Galena home was transferred to be jointly owned by Nelson and Leneghan, according to Delaware County Auditor records. The transfer was for zero dollars. The auditor’s website shows the property is estimated to be worth $272,800.
During an April 10 hearing ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court, the board voted 2-1 to remove Leneghan from the voter rolls. Democrats Helvey and Watkins voted to remove her, while Republican Steve Cuckler voted against removal.
The decision found Leneghan is not a legal resident of Delaware County, making her ineligible to run in the May primary for a Republican State Central Committee seat or to vote in elections.
Leneghan testified during the hearing that she spends at least half of her time in Delaware County. She also testified that since selling her Powell home, personal items like her Ohio State University diploma, are stored at her mother’s Columbus home. Other items were sent to various places, including her two properties in South Carolina, a storage facility, and Nelson’s home.
Leneghan also testified that she had not actually lived at the Liberty Township address where she was registered to vote immediately after selling her Powell home.
Leneghan filed an appeal of the elections board’s decision with the Ohio Supreme Court on April 14, asking the court to rule on her appeal in a quicker than usual cycle given the upcoming election and since early voting started April 7.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost weighed into Leneghan’s case, arguing for the Ohio Supreme Court to uphold the county elections board’s decision.
“[Leneghan] believes she has the right to shop for a constituency. She does not,” Yost’s brief says. “Voters should choose their representatives. [Leneghan] would have it the other way around.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Delaware County and eastern Columbus suburbs reporter Maria DeVito can be reached at mdevito@dispatch.com and @mariadevito13.dispatch.com on Bluesky and @MariaDeVito13 on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Supreme Court upholds removal of GOP committee member from ballot
Reporting by Maria DeVito, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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