Recordpub.com - Streetsboro mayor bid in federal courtroom McClafferty arguing against age restriction

By Mike Sever

Record-Courier staff writer

Brett McClafferty’s fight to get on the ballot for Streetsboro mayor made its way into a federal courtroom in Akron Tuesday morning.

Judge Sara Lioi heard arguments for two hours on why she should stop early voting in Portage County and put McClafferty, 21, on the ballot despite a city charter that puts the minimum age for elective office at 23.

Lioi did not render a decision by the end of office hours Tuesday.

Early voting with absentee ballots started statewide on Tuesday. In Portage, voting started at about 11 a.m. and a dozen people cast ballots by closing time, said Linda Marcial, director of the Portage County Board of Elections.

In Tuesday’s court hearing, McClafferty’s attorney, Avery Friedman, argued that Streetsboro’s 2007 charter amendment setting 23 as the minimum age for council or mayor was a direct attack on McClafferty and his political hopes.

Friedman called section 3.02 of the city charter the “anti-McClafferty ordinance.”

He said the charter review committee did not discuss age restrictions until McClafferty came within a vote in the 2007 primary of making it on to the general election ballot.

“There is no question there is a direct connection between Brett McClafferty’s near-victory in the primary of 2007 and the change in the charter,” Friedman said.

Friedman was seeking a preliminary injunction to stop early voting and to put McClafferty on the ballot. How that would be accomplished — whether by stopping and restarting early voting for city voters or by setting up a special election just for the mayor’s job — was not discussed in court.

Streetsboro hired the Columbus firm of Schottenstein, Zox and Dunn Co., LPA, to defend the city in the lawsuit. Attorney John P. Gilligan argued the age limit was no more arbitrary than those in the U.S. Constitution and in various state laws, which are “sanctioned by time-honored precedent.”

“I don’t think there is one case out there that calls for a minimum age of 23,” rebutted Friedman.

Gilligan said there was no evidence of a conspiracy to keep McClafferty out of elections, or that voters were duped by what Friedman said was the “flipping” of the ordinance language.

The age limit was the last of three provisions on the ballot. The first called for candidates to disclose any criminal convictions, and the second required them to be residents for two years before seeking office.

Friedman said the reverse order basically hid the actual intent of the change, which was to prevent McClafferty from running.

“They gave voters not much of a choice ... the flip worked,” Friedman said.

“That is simply speculation,” Gilligan said.

Lioi questioned why McClafferty did not challenge the charter language when it was first proposed in 2007, and why he did not file suit before Sept. 24.

Friedman said McClafferty had no standing until the election board turned down his challenge on Sept. 3, and it took time to assemble all the materials for the lawsuit.

Gilligan said McClafferty “sat on his rights” until the Sept. 3 board of elections hearing and “has waited literally until the election was beginning to assert this claim.”

Portage County Assistant Prosecutor Denise Smith, representing the elections board, argued McClafferty had standing to challenge the charter since 2007, and that a delay in voting would be harmful to other county voters.