Whitehall voters narrowly voted to recall one city council member, but voted to keep the Columbus suburb’s mayor and another city council member in a low turnout special election.
As of Tuesday evening, City Council Member Lori Elmore could lose this recall election by a six-vote margin, while Mayor Michael Bivens and City Council Member Amy Harcar could survive with a lead of dozens of votes.
Antone White, the director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told WOSU there are approximately 31 ballots that could change the results before results are officially certified on Monday, June 29.
If these ballots, some of which are provisional ballots, are all counted, it could change the unofficial results shown Tuesday evening.
Voters were asked on the ballot to vote “Yes” if they wanted the three to keep their seats or “No” if they wanted the three to be kicked out of office.
With 100% of precincts reporting, the "No" votes in Elmore's contest are leading, with 1,081 voters choosing to kick her out of office compared with 1,075 who voted to keep her in office.
The “Yes” votes for Bivens appear to have prevailed with 1,127 votes to 1,029 "No" votes.
Harcar could be set to keep her seat with 1,093 "Yes" votes compared to 1,064 "No" votes.
A group of recall petition organizers gathered enough signatures to force a recall election against the three earlier this year.
Patricia Balser, one of the main organizers, explained to WOSU for the first time Tuesday morning that she and others were frustrated over the city’s push for denser rental housing. Balser and her allies cited other reasons, including a longstanding feud between the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9 and the city’s police chief, Mike Crispen.
Balser didn't respond to phone calls seeking comment on the results Tuesday evening.
Bivens told WOSU Tuesday evening he's feeling motivated and energized to continue his work for the citizens of Whitehall. He said he is hopeful once full results are out that Harcar and Elmore will prevail.
"We will eagerly await those results," Bivens said.
Elmore said she will wait to see what the final count looks like, because making a declaration right now would be speculating.
"We did a great job getting out the vote, engaging out coters and engaging our supporters, the residents, the community and I'm sure the other side was doing the same thing," Elmore said.
Elmore faced a complaint in the weeks leading up to the election that is being investigated by Ohio Auditor Keith Faber. Elmore campaigned from the city council dais during a meeting in early June, urging voters to vote "Yes" to keep she and her colleagues in office.
Elmore didn't say whether the news of this complaint on the eve of the election effected how people voted.
Elmore said the closeness of this election says that "even in light of concrete, factual data, people are still willing to believe misinformation."
Harcar was more frank than her colleagues, telling WOSU after the results that there is a lot of work to do to bring people together.
"We have to be able to talk to those that... even those that don't support us. We have to be able to talk to them, to figure out some way to come to a middle ground," Harcar said.
Bivens first took office after the 2023 election, where he ran unopposed for mayor. Elmore and Harcar were reelected to new terms in 2023.
Voter turnout nearly reached 20% of the city's 11,000 registered voters. While it is lower turnout compared to presidential and midterm general elections and primaries, the three elected officials all said a high amount of voter engagement is a positive thing.
Organizer speaks out, Harcar asks for voter support on Election Day
Since January when the recall effort was first announced, Balser and co-organizer Holly Stein hadn’t responded to interview requests with WOSU. That changed on Election Day when Balser explained her motivations for the recall at Whitehall Yearling High School.
Balser sat outside the high school this morning in the backseat of her car with two bright neon signs saying "No to Go." Nearby, Council Member Amy Harcar sat in a lawn chair with signs urging voters to vote yes.
Balser said, among other reasons, she pushed for the recall because she and other citizens disagree with the city adding more rental housing rather than more single family homes, specifically with the Fairway Cliffs development.
"(Single family homes are) what Whitehall's built on. That's how my grandparents bought their house. And too much rentals is too dense, too many kids coming to our schools that are already at capacity,” Balser said.
“We don't have to solve the housing problem. We're a small community,” Balser said.
Balser said she and her allies want an investigation into Whitehall Police Chief Mike Crispen, which the FOP has been pushing for. An earlier attempt to do this was rejected by city council, nearly unanimously. Only Council Member Gerald Dixon supported it.
Balser said the feud with the FOP, lawsuits filed by the police union, officer turnover and allegations of Crispen using a ticket quota all contribute to this.
Dixon was later arrested by Crispen and charged with sexually abusing children. Those charges were dropped in court awaiting presentation to grand jury. Crispen still hasn’t presented the case to file felony charges, despite Crispen claiming to have “overwhelming evidence” in an investigation that took several years.
Dixon is still on council after multiple efforts by Harcar and Elmore to force him out. He signed the petitions that forced this recall effort.
Balser said Dixon’s arrest and the fallout of it weren’t a focus of the recall effort, despite happening right before it. Bivens also supported ousting Dixon.
On whether the city should mount a recall effort against Dixon, Balser said:
“Other citizens are welcome to take that on. It's not really our focus and it was never our focus,” Balser said.
When asked about Balser’s position on housing, Harcar said Whitehall can't solve the housing crisis, but that it should do its part. She said the city tried to negotiate with citizens who disagreed with the Fairway Cliffs development, even when it was originally a single family home development plan.
“At the end of the day that property is owned by somebody who has the right to do what they want to with that land and now they're going to be putting in rental properties which is farther away from what either of us wanted the petitioners or the mayor and councilors,” Harcar said.
Harcar questioned the intentions of the petition organizers and the Fraternal Order of Police's involvement, campaigning against her and her colleagues. She says the petition organizers haven't been racist, but feels people are motivated to vote against the city's first Black mayor and council member.
“I'm not saying the petitioners themselves, that that was their motivation, but unfortunately they have aligned themselves with those individuals,” Harcar said.
Harcar said she received hateful comments about her work helping immigrants and refugees through her job with Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services.
Bivens blasted the recall effort, saying he didn’t see a valid reason for the effort. Harcar, Elmore and allies of Bivens among the Franklin County Democratic Party alleged the effort was driven by racism against the city’s first-ever Black mayor and city council member.
Balser and her allies denied that allegation, saying it was meant to distract from the real issues she and her allies were raising.
Both Balser and Harcar were concerned about “outside influence” on the election.
The FOP, which represents Whitehall officers and thousands of others in central Ohio, contributed over $2,000 to the recall campaign.
Meanwhile, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin and Franklin County Democratic Party were among those who helped campaign against the recall. U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, who represents Whitehall, also participated in an automated campaign call, asking voters to vote to keep Bivens, Harcar and Elmore.
Voters give mixed reviews on recall effort
Before noon, a steady stream of voters made their way to Whitehall Yearling High School.
Danielle Wheeler, a Whitehall City Schools teacher, voted "Yes" on all three ballot questions. She applauded Bivens and the city for improving Whitehall since he took office.
“I think we've made some great strides, brought some great companies in, opened up some job opportunities, changed a lot of things, and I feel like it needs to continue to change for the better,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said she thinks racism motivated the effort to remove the city's first Black mayor and city council member.
"It is very, very rare that you see a person of color, two people of color for that matter, in a position of power. But then you also have Amy Harcar, who works very closely with immigrants,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler disagrees with the FOP's choice to get involved in this election. She said that while Dixon is innocent until proven guilty, he should be recalled instead.
"I would think anybody that stands behind him I asked you to leave your children with him If you would not willingly leave your child with him and let him watch your child then you obviously feel the same way that we feel,” Wheeler said.
Keith Johnson also voted Tuesday morning with his son. Both are graduates of high school and work at Johnson’s grass mowing company.
Johnson voted no to remove all three elected officials. He said council meetings are getting out of hand and the city needs a change in leadership, citing videos of meetings where city council members yelled at constituents.
"I'm all for debate and argument but they're getting a little too crazy with it. They're calling people names, screaming at them, making our council meetings look like a circus,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he also takes issue with the Whitehall Police Department, including the allegations Crispen was forcing officers to meet traffic ticket quotas. Crispen denied this, but was one of the only people to testify against a law passed by the Ohio General Assembly seeking to ban the practice.
But Johnson’s main complaint about the police is the tactics used to arrest Troy Faulkner, a Whitehall resident who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
"Now (police) are saying that they didn't raid (Faulkner’s) house, even though we saw the tank pull up to it and the little drones flying around in it. He went to jail for five months over it. I don't agree with their tactics,” Johnson said.
Faulkner, who Johnson went to high school with, was among hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol that were pardoned by President Donald Trump at the start of his second term. Faulkner wore a hoodie to the Capitol building that day with his painting business’s name and phone number on it, according to FBI documents.
Faulkner was charged with destruction of government property, obstructing official proceedings, entering a restricted building and disrupting the orderly conduct of a session of Congress.
Aside from Johnson and Wheeler, WOSU also spoke to John Bailey, a caricature artist from Whitehall.
Bailey said he wasn’t informed about the reason for the recall but said he voted yes to keep Bivens, Elmore and Harcar in their seats.
He said he found the recall effort questionable.
"I don't like to miss a vote and I just kind of I thought this recall thing was kind of shady. I wanted to cast my vote to support them,” Bailey said.
