Ohio
Ohio Supreme Court asked to force vote on elections board challenge
Columbus, Ohio top headlines of the week
Here are some stories you may have missed this week in central Ohio.
An attorney representing a woman challenging whether a Delaware County Board of Elections member lives in Ohio has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to force the remaining three elections board members to vote on the challenge.
The filing with the state’s high court came four days after the county elections board did not hold a hearing on the residency challenge against board member Melanie Leneghan, who is also the female District 19 representative for the Republican State Central Committee.
The elections board did not hold the residency hearing during its March 5 meeting or take any action on the challenge because the board’s two Democrats, Ed Helvey and Peg Watkins, recused themselves over concerns that any action they took could be seen as partisan.
Leneghan also recused herself, leaving only the board’s other Republican member, Steve Cuckler. As a result, the board didn’t have the required three members needed for a quorum.
Delaware County Republican Party Central Committee member Velva Dunn is challenging Leneghan’s right to vote in Ohio and her candidacy for reelection to the central committee in the May primary. In her challenge, Dunn alleges that Leneghan lives in South Carolina.
Leneghan, a former Liberty Township trustee, sold her home near Powell in January 2025. She is registered to vote in Galena, the elections board’s website shows.
Stay up to date with Delaware County news: Subscribe to The Dispatch’s free weekly Delaware County newsletter, The Delaware Dispatch.
Leneghan told The Dispatch on March 3 that she spends the majority of her time in Ohio, though she travels out of state for her sales job and owns property elsewhere, including in South Carolina, where she visits her daughter in college.
Dunn’s attorney, Curt Hartman, argued in the Supreme Court filing that Helvey and Watkins do not have a direct and personal interest in the challenge and their recusals, “while admirable in terms of seeking to put beyond reproach any perception of bias, is not sufficient to justify their recusal in this instance.”
Unlike when a judge or a prosecutor recuses themselves and appoints a visiting judge or special prosecutor, Hartman argued there is no mechanism or process outlined in Ohio law regarding recusals on boards of election, which are comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans. Hartman alleged that the Ohio Secretary of State does not have legal authority to consider such matters instead of the elections board.
Because there is no other remedy, Hartman argues in the filing that the other three board members have a clear legal duty to hold and conduct the hearing as required by Ohio law.
Hartman is also asking the Supreme Court to force the hearing because Leneghan is seeking reelection to the state central committee in the upcoming May 5 primary election.
In a March 11 response, the elections board’s special counsel, Frank J. Reed Jr., says that the legal concept Hartman is arguing doesn’t apply in these circumstances.
Reed also wrote that Helvey’s and Watkins’s actions were proper under the Ohio Secretary of State’s Ethics Policy for Ohio elections boards. The policy, in part, states: “Members and employees of the boards of elections should avoid actions and associations that create an appearance of impropriety, that undermine public confidence in Ohio elections officials, or that interfere with the performance of duties by Ohio elections officials.”
Now, the case is up to the justices to make a decision. The docket does not indicate when that would happen.
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.
PERRY TWP., Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a Monday morning crash involving a semi-truck that resulted in a woman’s death.
Yolanda Medina Matos, 58, of Campbell, died at the hospital Monday as a result of injuries from a crash around 10 a.m. Monday. The two-vehicle crash happened on state Route 344 at the intersection of Cunningham Road.
A release from authorities states the other driver, a 51-year-old Salem man, was taken to the hospital as a precaution with no apparent injuries.
The release states a car driven by Matos failed to yield at a stop sign at the intersection and was hit by a semi-truck.
In its news release, OSHP reminded drivers of the importance of coming to a complete stop at stop signs and only proceeding through an intersection when it is clear of traffic.
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Antonio Brent, a second grader at St. Peter’s School in Mansfield, has won third place in the 2026 Imagine Engineering Coloring Contest.
Brent’s drawing was selected from a record-breaking 10,269 entries from second graders across Ohio, according to a community announcement. He will be recognized at an awards luncheon June 13 in Columbus.
Brent’s drawing depicts an engineer visiting a construction site. The central figure, wearing personal protective equipment, reviews plans and specifications while a crew works with heavy equipment in the background.
As a third-place winner, Brent will receive a National Geographic Mega Science Lab with 75 STEM experiments.
Imagine Engineering program introduced in 1999
The Imagine Engineering program was founded by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio in 1999. Since then, the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers has enlisted its members to visit local classrooms and explain what engineers do for a living.
The program is designed to help second graders understand what engineering is and how it impacts their everyday lives. It also aims to inspire students to consider careers in engineering by introducing them to real engineers and hands-on experiments.
In 2021, EFO updated the program by adding an educational resource video titled “Imagine Engineering.” The video features Ohio professional engineers who explain engineering at a fundamental level and demonstrate hands-on experiments that support the second-grade curriculum.
In 2023, EFO received a grant from the P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to expand the program to include Ohio’s Spanish-speaking second graders. The Spanish translation of the video includes a Spanish-speaking engineer to narrate the lesson and subtitles for the experiments.
“Imagine Engineering is a children’s program that is unique to Ohio, having been created by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio in the late 1990s,” EFO President Joe Cherry said in the announcement. “Over the last quarter of a century, Imagine Engineering has helped ignite the imaginations of tens of thousands of children statewide, encouraging them to focus on math and science – and perhaps a career in engineering.”
For more information about the Imagine Engineering program, visit ohioengineer.com.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
Miami has moved up in the Rivals Industry national team recruiting rankings.
The Hurricanes added a big piece to the puzzle when Top 100 Dothan (Ala.) High cornerback Ai’King Hall flipped his commitment from Oregon to Miami on Sunday afternoon.
With Hall now in the fold, Miami jumped up one spot from No. 7 to No. 6 in the rankings.
Miami surged past Ohio State and boasts the No. 1 recruiting class in the ACC.
The Hurricanes are less than a point behind No. 5 ranked Notre Dame.
At 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Hall is ranked as the No. 7 cornerback and No. 39 overall prospect nationally, per Rivals. He is also ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit in the state of Alabama this cycle.
Miami now has 12 commitments in the 2027 recruiting class — Hall, five-star Long Beach (Calif.) Poly cornerback Donte Wright, five-star Miami (Fla.) Carol City wide receiver Nick Lennear, Top 100 Lombard (Ill.) Montini Catholic quarterback Israel Abrams, , Rivals300 Houston (Texas) Langham Creek defensive lineman Ezekiel Ayangbile, Rivals300 Poplarville (Miss.) High running back Ty Keys, Rivals300 Fort Pierce (Fla.) John Carroll offensive lineman Sean Tatum, four-star Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons tight end Demarcus Deroche, four-star Davie (Fla.) McArthur defensive back Jaylyn Jones, three-star Gainesville (Ga.) High offensive lineman Tyler Ford, three-star Key West (Fla.) High defensive lineman Josh Johnson and three-star Davie (Fla.) McArthur defensive back Sherrod Gourdine.
Miami will have a chance to keep moving up the rankings as it gears up to host several top targets for official visits this summer.
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