Clark County Superior Court Judge David Gregerson has ruled Republican John Ley as ineligible for the state House of Representatives seat for Legislative District 18 Position 2.
A news release from the county on July 15 stated the Clark County Canvassing Board has been directed to not include votes cast for Ley in its certification of the Aug. 2 primary election.
The order follows a suit filed by Clark County residents Carolyn Crain and Penny Ross, which challenged Ley’s voter registration and alleged he did not reside at the address he provided when he updated his voter registration on April 4.
On July 11, Crain and Ross filed against Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, county elections supervisor Cathie Garber and the county as a whole. That suit followed a determination by Kimsey from a prior challenge to Ley’s residency made by Crain.
Ley filed to run for the seat on May 17 during the state’s annual filing week. According to their complaint, Crain and Ross were surprised to see Ley run for that seat. They stated Ley had previously registered with a Camas address when he ran for office in past years.
Camas used to be in the 18th district, but the boundaries of the district shifted and excluded the city after the recent redistricting process.
To determine the veracity of his residency, Crain sent mail to Ley at both the Battle Ground residence listed on his registry and to his Camas address to solicit a response. She also visited both addresses in person, but didn’t receive a response.
After her investigation, Crain filed a challenge on Ley’s voter registration on May 26. On June 28, Kimsey heard testimony from Crain and Ley. Ley said friends verbally agreed to let him rent the Battle Ground residence for $1 a month, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
On July 8, Kimsey issued a written ruling in favor of Crain’s challenge, citing “clear and compelling evidence” that Ley didn’t live at the address he used to register.
Kimsey, however, did not cancel Ley’s voter registration. On July 4, Ley registered at a different address in the district in Hazel Dell, according to the county’s response to Crain and Ross’ suit. The response notes the new registration did not receive a challenge like Ley’s Battle Ground residence had.
Both Kimsey and an official with the Office of the Secretary of the State said the auditor’s authority extended only to Ley’s ability to vote, OPB reported. Crain and Ross argued that wasn’t the case.
In the complaint, they point to a section of state law that a candidate for office can’t appear on the ballot unless they are “properly registered to vote in the geographic area represented by the office.”
Gregerson agreed Ley was ineligible to run, though he denied a new motion from the plaintiffs that required new ballots to be printed for the election two days prior to the announcement of Ley’s ineligibility. In their response to the complaint, the county noted the ballots for the primary election were already printed on June 30, eight days before Kimsey’s written ruling.
Removing Ley from the ballot would have been costly. Reprinting ballots would require a change to all ballots in the county due to the processes used to certify them, the response stated. About 334,000 ballots were printed for the August primary. Overall costs were expected to be $267,000, not including staff pay for the process.
The county believed the earliest ballots could be printed would be a day before the election deadline, and they would still need to be mailed.
Instead, Gregerson ruled any votes for Ley for the primary will be deemed invalid.
“(P)rinting and mailing new 2022 primary election ballots without Mr. Ley’s name listed as a candidate is prohibitive,” Gregerson wrote in his order.
Specifically, the order states “votes cast for (Ley) ... on 2022 primary election ballots will not be used to determine which two candidates for that office will appear on the 2022 general election ballot.”
Ley was one of four candidates looking to replace incumbent Larry Hoff, R-Vancouver, who is not running for re-election. The three valid candidates are Republicans Brad Benton and Greg Cheney, and Democrat Duncan Camacho.
The Clark County Elections Office will mail a notice to each unique mailing address of all active registered voters in the 18th Legislative District informing them of the judge’s order and its effect, stated the release.
The deadline for the primary election is 8 p.m. Aug. 2.
