On Jan. 5, Joel Kuhlman was voted by his party to fill a soon-to-be empty seat on the Wood County Board
of Commissioners.
More than two weeks later, the seat is still empty.
It appears the county’s Democratic party did not follow the required timeline set by the Ohio Revised
Code for replacement of retiring county commissioners.
According to the code, a county commissioner may be replaced five to 45 days after a resignation. Kuhlman
was voted into the seat by the local party’s executive committee a week before Alvie Perkins’ retirement
went into effect.
When questioned about the discrepancy prior to the vote, Mike Zickar, head of the county Democratic
party, said case law allowed the seat to be filled early if the resignation was announced ahead of time.

But officials from the Secretary of State’s Office said — not so fast. That particular case law does not
apply, according to Matt McClellan, spokesperson for Secretary of State Jon Husted.
“That applies to a different set of facts,” McClellan said Thursday morning.
It’s a “technicality,” but it can’t be overlooked.
Kuhlman was aware of the code timeline, but had been reassured by local party officials that the case law
would cover his appointment. He had made phone calls to the Secretary of State’s Office, but was not
given any reason for the delay in certifying his election.
“They never returned my calls,” Kuhlman said Thursday. “It’s frustrating to me for multiple reasons.”
The dispute means the Wood County Democratic Executive Committee must reconvene to vote again on filling
the commissioner seat. Zickar said Thursday he isn’t sure if that meeting will be held next week or if
the committee will just vote at its next regular meeting time on Feb. 2.
“There’s some dispute there. We’re not going to fight their interpretation. We just want to have Joel in
office,” Zickar said. “It’s just a technical issue and we’ll move ahead.”
Zickar said no one in the Secretary of State’s Office had advised the local party to rely on the case
law. And he did not think the fact that Husted is Republican played a role in the issue.
“I have no evidence of that. Who knows,” he said.
Kuhlman was elected by local party members with 59 votes to 3 votes cast for the other interested
candidate, Fred Keith.
“There was just such strong support for Joel,” Zickar said.
Though no issues have gone unaddressed due to the empty commissioner seat, the commissioners’ office has
had to make modifications since at least two commissioners are required to be present for any actions to
be taken. On Thursday, the commissioners had to cancel their regular open session since Commissioner Tim
Brown was in Columbus, which left Jim Carter as the sole commissioner present.
But Kuhlman is ready to take the seat and move on.
“We’ll be able to fix it and it will be a thing of the past,” he said.