Hearing Set For Challenge In Washington Mayors Race

A hearing will be held Wednesday morning on challenge that has been filed in connection with the mayor’s race in the city of Washington.  Democrat Jo Jo Burgess won the race by 39 votes over Independent candidate Mark Kennison. Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander says there are twenty petitioners who are all registered voters in the city who voted in the election and they are requesting to review all of the election materials including; voted ballots, voting lists and poll book lists. She says they believe there were activities that occurred at the 6th Ward-Precinct 1 polling place that could have caused the election to be swayed towards one candidate. Results show that Burgess beat Kennison by 68 votes in that precinct. A hearing on the challenge will be heard before Washington County Common Pleas Court Judge Gary Gilman Wednesday morning at 10 o’clock.  WJPA reached out to attorney Lane Turturice, who filed the petition on behalf of the twenty individuals, but received no response.  Jo Jo Burgess told WJPA that he has filed a motion to quash the petition because he believes there was no wrong-doing.  A hearing on that motion is set for Wednesday morning as well.  Burgess says his campaign worked especially hard to court voters in that precinct and he believes this challenge has racial undertones and is an effort to disenfranchise their votes.