Elections board barred group from polls in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A central Ohio elections board director says a conservative group was barred from monitoring polling places because candidates supporting the group withdrew their support.

Franklin County elections board director William Anthony said three Republican and two Democratic candidates withdrew their support a month ago.

Anthony says representatives with Houston-based True the Vote were barred because they lacked that support.

True the Vote director Catherine Engelbrecht charged that the Ohio Democratic Party was behind pressure that led the local Ohio candidates to withdraw their permission for the group’s members to act as election observers.

Engelbrecht also complained about “dangerous and offensive” suggestions that her group and an allied Ohio organization had forged candidate placement signatures that allowed the monitors to have a presence near the polling places.