Cincinnati City Council candidate John Maher got into a "shoving match" with a worker from another campaign at the Hamilton County Board of Elections on Saturday, resulting in the Norwood Police Department being called to the scene where early voting was underway.
Nobody was arrested, but Maher and Kevin Farmer, who was there on behalf of Republican council candidate Tom Brinkman, were sent home for the day, according to Norwood Police Sgt. Ryan Murphy.
It's not the first dust-up this year at the board of elections, which features heated school board races and arecord 35 candidates running for city council. There have been verbal arguments about who gets to set up as close to voters as the board of elections will allow, said Hamilton County Board of Elections Director Sherry Poland. Any Hamilton County voter who wanted to cast an early ballot in person had to come to the board of elections office in Norwood.
Some candidates had been bringing tents, which led to arguments about where they could be set up. That resulted in Poland nixing tents, which upset some candidates, especially during last week's rain storms.
"There were just too many candidates and not enough space," Poland said of the tents. "It's always been first come, first served."
The Norwood police report said the shoving match at 11:35 a.m. Saturday resulted from people "not staying in the bullpen," which is where candidates are permitted to stand.
Council candidate Michelle Dillingham, who has spent much of the month at the early voting site, said the Board of Elections has been strict about where people can stand, which resulted in rival campaign staffers being squeezed together. It also meant that some campaigns would arrive as early as 3 a.m. to secure prime spots.
One of council candidate Brian Garry'scampaign workers slept in his car outside the board of elections just so the Garry campaign could be the first to set up. Bill Frost, who is endorsed by the Cincinnati Charter Committee, often arrived by 4 a.m. so the charter committee could have a prominent spot to tout its slate, Dillingham said.
"We affectionately called it tent wars," Dillingham said. "Then it got kind of ugly. Some candidates would show up and want to put their sign up. But the people who had been there all morning were like, 'don't put your sign in front of mine.' "
The tents went away, but then so did the boundaries.
Kevin Farmer, who runs a company called Made You Look Promotions, worked on behalf of Brinkman. He and other carried electronic billboards touting Brinkman's candidacy.
Farmer told The Enquirer Monday night he surveyed the area where candidates and volunteers could stand when he asked Maher who he was and if he was running for council. When Maher said who he was, Farmer said he jokingly commented that he didn't vote for him, and Maher called him a "punk."
"In my culture we take that as a very big insult," said Farmer, who is Black.
More insults followed, some with profanity.
"Before the police got there he (Maher) literally tried to mug me and to get in my face," Farmer said. "I was riled. He tried to hit me with an umbrella."
"Then he called me boy," Farmer said. "I said I am a man, not a boy. He was being a bigot. I felt the racism. People felt the racism. It was appalling."
Maher when reached by The Enquirer on Monday night declined to comment.
Both men were at early voting Sunday with no further incident, Farmer said.
Council candidate Rob Harris and Earmon Powell, who was there on behalf of mayoral candidate Aftab Pureval, pulled the two men apart before the fight got worse, telling Farmer a fight would not be worth it.
Early voting at the board of elections ended Monday ahead of Election Day Tuesday.
Source link
