Various local issues, one local race to be on fall ballot

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

The November 3 ballot is mostly set in Van Wert County.

Information provided by Pam Henderson, Director of the Van Wert County Board of Elections shows there will be six local issues on the ballot and possibly three others. The deadline to file paperwork for the fall ballot was August 5.

These are the confirmed local issues, none countywide:

• A pair of 2-mill renewal levies in the village of Convoy, both for operating expenses.
• A 1.4 mill levy in Liberty Township (excluding the village of Ohio City) for fire protection.
• A 1-mill levy for current expenses in Union Township.
• A 1-mill levy for current operating expenses and future improvements.
• A 2-mill renewal levy for permanent improvements in the Crestview Local Schools district.

Henderson said the Van Wert County Board of Elections Office is waiting on the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office to approve ballot language for three other issues:

• A 1.2 mill levy for fire protection in the village of Venedocia.
• A 1.8 mill levy for fire and EMS services in Jackson Township.
• A 1-mill levy for fire and EMS services in Washington Township.

A statewide constitutional amendment dealing with voting and photo identification is expected to be on the ballot as well, pending state approval of the ballot language, which is expected by Tuesday, August 25.

Two issues that won’t appear on the ballot – a local data center initiative and a statewide constituational amendment concerning data centers.

The local initiative would have given Van Wert city residents the opportunity to repeal an ordinance passed by Van Wert City Council in May that permits data centers in industrial zoned areas of the city.

Petitions to place a local initiative on the fall ballot were circulated by city resident Joe Jared and others, in hopes of stopping QTS data centers from building a $10 billion data center on Van Wert’s east side. According to Henderson, state law required the petitions to have 323 valid signatures but they fell short. Of the 392 signatures on the petitions, 255 were deemed valid during the vertification process. According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, there are several reasons that signatures can be deemed invalid, including signers not being registered voters, signers not being city residents or registered at the address listed on the petition, signatures not matching signatures on file with the Board of Elections, and/or possible errors on the circulator statement of the petitions.

If the proposed initiative had enough valid signatures, the next step would have been getting its language approved.

On a broader scale, a grassroots organization called Conserve Ohio had hoped to place a statewide constitutional amendment on the November ballot, but had to delay until at least November of 2027. If placed on the ballot and approved by a majority of Ohio voters, the amendment would have prohibited the construction of new data centers with a peak load of more than 25 megawatts per month, which would prevent most modern data centers.

The amendment needed more than 413,000 valid signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by July 1 to get on this year’s ballot. As of mid-June, Conserve Ohio had collected approximately 70,000 signatures. The group only used volunteers to collect signatures. Political experts said Conserve Ohio would likely need to collect well over 600,000 peitions signatures in hopes that enough of them would be considered valid.

No mayoral, city or village council, school board or township trustee races will be on the ballot this fall.

In fact, there will be just one local race in November. Incumbent State Representative Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland) is seeking another term in the 82nd District and has two challengers – Libertarian Christopher Elder of Paulding and Democrat Maddux McCray of Van Wert, who’s running as a write-in candidate. The 82nd District encompasses all of Van Wert, Paulding and Putnam counties, along with the southern half of Defiance County.

Incumbent Republican Van Wert County Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger is running unopposed, as is Van Wert County Juvenile/Probate Court Judge Eva Yarger, who was appointed to the seat in February, then defeated fellow Republican Todd Wolfrum in the May primary election. Wolfrum will continue on as a county commissioner. After defeating incumbent Jami Bradford in the May primary election, Arica Wermer is running unopposed for Van Wert County Auditor. After defeating Jim Hoops in the May primary, Craig Reidel (R-Defiance) is running unopposed for the 1st District Ohio Senate seat.

Statewide races of note on the November ballot include the governor’s race between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, Democrat Amy Action and Libertarian Don Kissick. The three are vying to replace current Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who is unable to seek re-election due to term limits.

The race for U.S. Senate is expected to be hotly contested as well. It features incumbent Republican Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat in January of last year, and former longtime Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his bid for re-election in 2024.

The deadline to register to vote or update voter registration information in time for the November 3 election is October 5. Early in-person voting will begin the following day.