AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A county elections board deadlocked Thursday over whether a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio lives in her Akron district, sending the matter to the state’s Republican secretary of state to resolve the issue. heels.
The challenge to U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes’ residency was launched by a Republican political activist. She will face GOP nominee Kevin Coughlin in the Nov. 5 election, a contest considered one of the most exciting House races in the country.
Both Democrats on the Summit County Board of Elections voted against the challenge, while the two Republicans supported it. The case has no bearing on Sykes’ candidacy, and board members seemed to agree that there is nothing currently stopping Sykes from voting for himself in Akron.
Sykes, a first-term member of Congress, did not attend the meeting but filed a three-page affidavit. She says she has lived on North Howard Street in Akron for eleven years, her driver’s license lists that address, her Congressional paychecks are addressed to her there, she attends church nearby and usually returns to that property when she is not in Washington, DC.
The dispute centers on a form filled out earlier this year by her husband, Kevin Boyce, that stated she was part of his household in Columbus. He is an elected member of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners in Columbus, about 129 miles southwest of Akron.
Boyce told the Summit Board of Elections in late September that Sykes does not actually live with him in Franklin County.
“There is nothing wrong with that if spouses have different homes,” her lawyer, Don McTigue, argued before the election board on Thursday. “I hope we are well past the day when we assume that a woman’s place of residence is where her husband lives, or vice versa.”
Republicans and Democrats in the administration each have two weeks to send a letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose on the matter, meaning the dispute will almost certainly not be resolved before the election. Sykes had not yet cast a ballot as of Thursday morning, according to the Summit County elections office.
