ICYMI: Complaint filed over Schroder video
Just like her false TV ad, Kate Schroder had to pull down a social media video for spreading lies.
Schroder has terrible judgement and just can’t be trusted to represent Ohioans.
In case you missed it…
Ohio GOP Files Complaint Over Kate Schroder Facebook Video, Accuses Campaign of ‘Ballot Harvesting.’ Schroder Says Chabot ‘Desperate.’
Cincinnati Enquirer
Scott Wartman
August 27, 2020
A comment in a Facebook video about dropping off absentee ballots to organizations, such as the NAACP, prompted a complaint to the attorney general from the Ohio Republican Party.
Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken filed the complaint against Democrat Kate Schroder, who is challenging Westwood Republican Congressman Steve Chabot in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District.
Timken accused Schroder of a plan to “illegally harvest ballots.”
Absentee voting is expected to skyrocket this fall due to the pandemic, and has sparked a debate over how accessible ballot boxes should be. Ohio Democrats have sued Frank LaRose over his decision to limit the number of ballot drop boxes to one per county.
The video, which has been taken down, was posted Tuesday by Schroder as part of her weekly “Coffee with Kate” Facebook Live events.
In the video attached to the complaint, Schroder introduced Keizayla Fambro, executive director of political consulting firm Black Fork Strategies and Hamilton County Democratic Executive Committee member.
Fambro began talking about encouraging more absentee voting and said people who don’t feel comfortable dropping ballot off in person or using the mail “can drop it off to different organizations, like the NAACP, drop it off to the Hamilton County Democratic Party. Drop it off to them and allow them to put your ballot in that box.”
She also encouraged people to help senior citizens vote, “senior citizens helping them out, here is your provisional ballot, here is your absentee ballot, I’ll drop it off for you.”
That is not allowed under Ohio law, which requires the voter, the voter’s spouse or a close family member to deliver the absentee ballot to the board of elections.
“These statements set off an alarm that Ohio’s election is at risk,” Timken wrote in the letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
According to Timken, Fambro’s comments and Schroder’s slight head nod to Fambro’s comment revealed concerns “the candidate and members of the Democratic Party are planning to illegally harvest ballots.” Ballot harvesting is basically the gathering of absentee ballots by a third party.
Schroder’s campaign manager Allie Banwell in a statement said they corrected the error in the Facebook Live comments and took the video down “within minutes so as not to cause confusion or spread misinformation about voting.”
“Now Chabot is really getting desperate,’ Banwell said. “Here’s the truth. On a Facebook Live, a guest of Kate’s made a mistake in explaining how to drop off ballots. We immediately corrected this with accurate voting information in the comments of that Facebook Live, and ultimately took this video down within minutes so as not to cause confusion or spread misinformation about voting.”
Messages to Attorney General Dave Yost were not immediately returned Thursday.