Jerwers approved for Putnam County Election Board

OTTAWA — The Putnam County Board of Elections will have a new member beginning March 1.

Tom Jerwers, of Kalida, has been elected by the Putnam County Republican Central Committee to serve as a Republican representative to the board. He will be filling Marie Heitmeyer's position whose four-year term expires at the end of this month. She was not re-elected to serve on the board.

Lyle McKanna, the Republican Central Committee chairman, said the election to fill the board seat was held Jan.17.

“We had three candidates including Jerwers, Heitmeyer and Matt Cunningham,” McKanna said. “Each candidate was given the opportunity to speak, and then we held an election.”

McKanna said Jerwers received the majority vote for the nomination. His name was then submitted to the Ohio Secretary of State's office.

Jerwers said he received the call from Secretary of State John Husted's office on Thursday saying his nomination had been approved. Jerwers expects to be sworn in later this month at the State Department. He is looking forward to serving on the board and working to have fair and equitable elections.

This is the second time the Putnam County Republican Central Committee has nominated Jerwers to serve on the board. He was nominated in 2010 to fill a vacancy left when Lyle McKanna retired from the board. Then Democrat Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner rejected his nomination stating “she had reason to believe that, if appointed, Jerwers would not be a competent member of the Putnam County Board of Elections.”

At that time Brunner alleged that Jerwers had failed to file campaign finance reports for the Putnam County Republican Central Committee, but Jerwers indicated all the reports had been filed and were current.