Without explanation, the Athens County Board of Elections Thursday stood firm on its August decision to remove an anti-fracking ban from the November ballot, further aggravating environmental advocates who still don’t understand the board’s ruling.
Helen Walker, the board’s chair, said board members unanimously feel as through they are under no legal obligation to respond to a request for written explanation.
“(The decision) was based upon the law recited by our counsel (Athens County Prosecutor) Keller Blackburn,” Walker wrote in a letter to Sean S. Kelly, attorney for the Bill of Rights Committee, which asked for the board to explain the Aug. 15 decision to strip the initiative from the ballot.
The letter was dated Sept. 19 — the same day as the board’s meeting.
The letter Walker wrote Thursday also clarified that although the decision is recorded as unanimous, board member Kate McGuckin abstained from the decision and the board’s letter to the committee.
The board did decide to go ahead and give the group a full transcript of the August meeting in which the decision was made.
Richard McGinn, the group’s organizer and associate professor emeritus of linguistics and Southeast Asian studies at Ohio University, said he is “disappointed” and “outraged” by the way in which the board replied.
“My question is, don’t they have a moral obligation to respond?” he said. “Usually criminals have the right to remain silent. Why does the Board of Elections have a right to remain silent?”
In a letter dated Aug. 29, the lawyer representing the Bill of Rights Committee demanded Board of Elections Director Debbie Quivey give a written response that fully explained the board’s decision.
Even if the ban were placed in Athens County, the Ohio Revised Code says that the state is the only authority that can regulate drilling and mining.
The code states: “The (Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management) has sole and exclusive authority to regulate the permitting, location, and spacing of oil and gas wells and production operations within the state, excepting only those activities regulated under federal laws for which oversight has been delegated to the environmental protection agency,” among others.
McGinn said that he plans on consulting Kelly on the Bill of Rights Committee’s next steps, but that there are no plans to give up.
“This is democracy, and we are going to push forward with vigor," McGinn said
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