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LISBON – Brandon Kovach, who moved to Columbiana County to run for county auditor last year, has left less than six months after losing the election.
The county elections board was recently advised through the Mahoning County elections board that Kovach had registered on April 6 to vote there, and his new residence is his parents’ home in Austintown.
County elections board director Adam Booth said the statewide voter registration system automatically alerts them whenever a county voter changes their registration to another county, which is what happened in this instance.
Kovach, 23, moved to the county in late 2013 and filed to run for auditor against incumbent Nancy Milliken in 2014. Milliken defeated him 74 percent to 26 percent in the November election.
During his candidate interview last fall, Kovach said he had considered living in the county ever since visiting here as a child, and he intended to remain a resident no matter the outcome of the election.
“Even if I lose, I’m not going anywhere,” he said then.
This week, Kovach said a change in job opportunities resulting in a 90-minute commute made living on Fife Coal Road in Yellow Creek Township no longer practical.
“It’s not a change of heart, rather a change of circumstances,” he said of his decision. “I was spending a lot of money and too much time commuting. It just wasn’t viable for me anymore.”
Kovach said he is currently working on a master’s degree and would like to move back to the county someday.
His move occurred shortly after he resolved a dispute with the elections board over his campaign finance reports. The elections board sent Kovach a series of letters and emails following his defeat advising him his initial pre-election report was incomplete and filled out incorrectly.
When the problems persisted and Kovach did not respond for nearly two months to the last communication, the elections board took the unusual step of advising him he had until March 31 to comply with the state campaign finance reporting requirements or the matter would be referred to the Ohio Elections Commission.
Kovach came to the office on April 1 to file a corrected report, and while he is in substantial compliance, there were two possible outstanding reporting issues that still needed to be resolved. One of those is the shotgun and rifle raffle held to raise funds for his campaign. There was no mention in the reports of how he acquired the firearms, whether they were purchased or donated. Either way, they had to be listed in the report.
Kovach said he did not acquire the weapons in advance, and the raffle winner told him to keep everything and put it toward his campaign, so he ended up never having to purchase the firearms.
Mark Guy, who is in charge of campaign finance reports for the county elections board, said even if the shotgun and rifle were donated back to his campaign before the firearms were purchased, Kovach must still list the weapons and their costs in his report as an in-kind contribution and also identify the raffle winner who made the donation.
Guy sent Kovach an email on April 6 reminding him he needed to report any other expenditures and in-kind contributions, although he did not specifically mention the firearms, and failure to do so means his reports are incomplete.