The Franklin County Board of Elections will reschedule a hearing over an Ohio lawmaker's residency after the lawmaker updated his voter registration,nullifying the challenge that triggered the hearing.
Just days before a scheduled hearing over his residency, State Rep. Ismail Mohamed updated his voter registration to a new Columbus address. The change differs from the address identified in the original voter residency challenge that questioned whether the District 3 Democrat lives in his district or at a Delaware County home he owns valued at nearly $600,000.
Attorney Curt Hartman, who represents Bernadine Kennedy Kent, Mohamed's GOP opponent in the Nov. 3 general election and who brought the initial voter challenge, agreed during the Sept. 14
hearing to dismiss the original complaint after Mohamed's voter registration changes rendered the original challenge moot. But Hartman said they would file a new complaint with Mohamed's updated address later this week.
The new date for the hearing will be scheduled for some time next week, Hartman said. Once the new complaint is filed, the Board of Elections must hold a meeting within 10 calendar days, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
Attorney Corey Colombo, a partner at McTigue & Colombo and counsel for Mohamed, told The Dispatch after the meeting that he looked forward to representing Mohamed and that he was confident that evidence would show that he lives on Columbus' Northeast Side.
Mohamed, an attorney, previously listed his voting address as an apartment on Overlook Ridge Drive on the city's Northeast Side, according to campaign documents from the Franklin County Board of Elections. But on Sept. 9, that address was changed to another residence, this time to an apartment located on Griffin Gate Lane, also on the Northeast Side, according to Colombo.
District 3 includes parts of Columbus' Northeast, North and East Sides – including much of North Linden, the area around Easton, and parts of the University District, Short North and Downtown – as well as part of Clinton Township.
Mohamed is currently seeking reelection on the Nov. 3 ballot, where he is being opposed by Kent, who won the GOP primary in May with 163 write-in votes. Kent is a former Democrat who represented Ohio House District 25 for two terms from 2017-2020, and defeated Mohamed in 2018 by 658 votes to win reelection to her second term.
Mohamed made history as the first Somali man elected to serve in the Ohio Legislature when he took office in January 2023 after defeating Republican J. Josiah Lanning in the November 2022 general election.
In addition to questions surrounding Mohamed's residency, Ohio Secretary of State officials have also contacted Mohamed's campaign over irregularities with his campaign finance reports. One of the issues includes a $13,500 loan Mohamed made to his campaign in March 2022 that was not reported in subsequent filings, and contributions from political action committees that were not disclosed on his finance reports.
Kent has also raised concerns with the state about $97,137.82 that is not reconciled with later campaign finance filings. The Secretary of State's office said it was reviewing the information that Kent provided, but would not confirm if they were launching an investigation.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio lawmaker's Columbus address change resets residency challenge
