The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a protest by U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli’s campaign manager against the candidacy of Jullie Kelley, the only other Republican in the 6th Congressional District race.

In a 7-0 Friday decision, the court upheld the March 3 decision by the Stark County Board of Elections that Kelley meets the qualifications to be a candidate.

An attorney for David C. Spencer of East Liverpool, Rulli’s campaign manager, filed a March 5 request with the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn that decision.

If Kelley had been disqualified, Rulli, R-Salem, wouldn’t have faced any opposition in the May 5 GOP primary.

The court ruled Friday that the Stark board “did not abuse its discretion or clearly disregard applicable law in denying Spencer’s protest and certifying Kelley for placement on the May 5 primary election ballot.”

Kelley, of Monroe, barely made it on to the primary ballot when the Stark board ruled Feb. 17 that she had 50 valid signatures, the minimum number needed to qualify. Kelley was the only Republican to file against Rulli.

Stark board employees initially found only 49 signatures to be valid among the 62 Kelley submitted on nominating petitions for the congressional primary. But the board ruled a printed signature — rather than a cursive signed one, which is typically required — was valid and certified Kelley to the ballot.

Spencer, who runs the Spencer Federal political consulting firm in East Liverpool, filed a protest asking the Stark board to reconsider the printed signature it allowed from a Carroll County voter as well as to disqualify a signature from a registered Democrat.

At a March 3 hearing, the Stark board agreed to disqualify the signature from the registered Democrat, but rejected Spencer’s request to reconsider the printed signature.

That put Kelley at 49 valid signatures.

But Kelley at that hearing provided affidavits from two other people who printed their names attesting that they signed the petitions. That gives Kelley 51 valid signatures.

Boards of elections in Ohio regularly don’t count printed signatures unless a candidate can get affidavits from those people stating that’s how they sign their names or have them testify at protest hearings about how they sign their names.

Curt Hartman, Spencer’s Cincinnati-based attorney, argued to the Ohio Supreme Court that the Stark board didn’t have the authority to reconsider those two additional printed signatures because those residents live in Carroll County and that county’s board of elections had previously determined the printed signatures to be invalid.

“The Stark County Board of Elections and its members manifested a clear disregard of law and applicable legal principles, acting without authority of state law in reviewing and rehabilitating the genuineness of the two signatures which the Carroll County Board of Elections had previously declared to be invalid,” Hartman wrote.

The Supreme Court disagreed with that argument in its Friday ruling.

The court decision reads: “The Stark County board correctly considered Kelley’s evidence that three signatures, including two signatures of electors from Carroll County, had been incorrectly invalidated. Spencer raises no issue with respect to the evidence Kelley presented establishing that these three signatures were valid. Because including those signatures resulted in Kelley’s qualifying for the primary election ballot, the Stark County board correctly denied Spencer’s protest.”

If those signatures were thrown out, Kelley would not have had enough valid signatures to be on the ballot.

Deborah Dawson, a Stark County assistant prosecutor representing the elections board, wrote in a March 12 response that state law and Ohio secretary of state directives don’t require the board to rely upon Carroll County’s board’s “information in the ultimate determination of the validity of the candidacy.”

The Stark elections board “had ultimate responsibility in consideration of the Kelley candidacy,” Dawson argued, because it is the board in the 6th Congressional District’s most-populous county and makes the final decision.

Dawson wrote that Spencer wants to redefine state law that states “the determination or certification as to the sufficiency of signatures shall be binding on the board with which the petitions (were) filed. If the General Assembly wanted to confine the boards of elections’ handling filing and certification, it could have said so in unambiguous language, but it did not.”

Dawson added the board “acted well within its discretion under these circumstances, as the board of the most-populous county in the district with ultimate authority for certification, in conducting its own review of all petition signatures.”

The Supreme Court agreed with her arguments.

Seven Democrats filed to run for the Democratic nomination for the seat. The six whose names will appear on the ballot are Sean Connolly of Canfield, Malcolm Ritchie of Dover, Adrian Vitus of Poland, Brent Hanni of Youngstown, Charles DiPalma of Steubenville and Elizabeth Kirtley of New Philadelphia. Also, Christopher Lafont of Bethesda filed as a Democratic write-in candidate.

The primary for each party is May 5 with the winners moving to the Nov. 3 general election.

As a result of congressional redistricting, the 6th Congressional District, starting with this election, will include most of Mahoning and Stark counties as well as all of Columbiana, Jefferson, Carroll, Belmont, Harrison and Tuscarawas counties and parts of Wayne and Holmes counties.

Mahoning was the district’s most-populous county until redistricting. It is now the second most-populous with parts moved to the 14th Congressional District. Stark has 1,275 more residents in the 6th Congressional District than Mahoning.

Stark and Mahoning combined make up about 46% of the congressional district’s population.

The 6th District favors Republicans 63.9% to 36.1% for Democrats based on partisan statewide voting results between 2016 and 2024, according to the Ohio Redistricting Commission.