Muskingum County Named In Casino Lawsuit

The Muskingum County Board of Elections has been placed right in the middle of the lawsuit over the four casino ballot proposal that is before the Ohio Supreme Court.

Today the court ordered Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and the Muskingum County Board of Elections to file a response to the lawsuit by Wednesday of this week.

The issue involving Muskingum County revolves around invalid signatures on petitions for the casino issue.

According to the Dayton Daily News on Friday Scioto Downs, a Columbus-area horse racetrack opposed to the casino plan, ask the high court to order Brunner to investigate alleged violations of Ohio election law including the use of convicted felons to gather signatures.

Muskingum County Board of Elections Director Christina Hamill says she wants to investigate the matter more fully before commenting on the issue.

The lawsuit wants the court to order Brunner to compel county boards of elections to investigate alleged election law violations and to throw out petitions circulated by people who gave false addresses.

The court gave Scioto Downs until Friday to present its evidence and then Brunner has until Tuesday July 28th to present her evidence.

The newspaper say the lawsuit comes as Brunner prepares to rule tomorrow on whether casino supporters have gathered the required 402,275 valid signatures from registered voters to put the casino proposal on the November 3rd ballot.