An investigation finds that the Ohio Elections Commission failed to collect nearly $96 million in campaign finance fines, leading to its dissolution and replacement.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Elections Commission, or the OEC, works to make sure candidates and political groups are following campaign finance law — and levies fines when they’re not.
It’s work they’ve been doing since 1974.
But their efforts have been heavily criticized by state leaders who say they’re not collecting enough.
In a partnership with its Ohio sister stations WTOL in Toledo and WKYC in Cleveland, called “Ohio Investigates,” 10TV embarked on a five-month investigation into these concerns.
OEC Collection Notices Collecting Dust
An analysis by Ohio Investigates found a troubling trend — almost $96 million of the penalties that the commission has handed out since 1987 remains uncollected.
Those numbers show that about $5.8 million of that money owed is connected to central Ohio candidates, organizations and campaigns. That data also shows that Franklin, Lucas and Cuyahoga counties are among the top three in the state for unpaid fines.
It’s an issue that led Secretary of State Frank LaRose to describe the commission as a “toothless organization” in a May 2025 press release.
“They have been fining people and entities for years and not collecting the fines, something close to $100 million in uncollected fines,” he said. “Elections have consequences and election law needs to be uniformly enforced.”
They’re fees that typically range from $25 to $100 for each missed deadline or incomplete financial filing.
But Ohio Investigates also found that for some candidates, those daily penalties have been accumulating for years, sometimes without their knowledge, due to clerical issues and outdated information or miscommunications with other elections offices.
‘Toothless’ or Handicapped?
We took this data directly to the OEC’s longtime Executive Director Philip Richter. He said the commission doesn’t have the power to make anyone pay.
“All we can do is send out notice to somebody and say, ‘You owe us a fine,’ and we do that regularly,” he said. “If we don’t get a payment from someone, we’re obligated to send it along to the attorney general’s office for collection, and we do that. We do that on a fairly regular basis.”
Citing that backlog this past budget session, lawmakers decided to pull funding for the commission.
On Jan. 1, 2026, its replacement, a new 5-member organization called the Ohio Elections Integrity Commission (OEIC), will launch under the direction of the secretary of state.
Ohio Investigates sat down with the OEC’s outgoing Vice-Chair Shayla L. Davis.
“Was that the right call?” asked 10 Investigates.
“It was absolutely not the right call, and I’ve said this in multiple interviews before, and I’ll continue to say it,” said Davis.
Davis added that the commission needed more teeth and staff to do its job effectively.
“When you’re talking about a staff of 2.5 persons because there’s a part-time employee, one full-time assistant that serves the executive director, who also serves as the staff attorney,” Davis said. “You’re not talking about a lot of manpower and capacity and so I think [that’s where] some of the criticism comes [from], but it’s directed improperly when you look at the overall structure.”
And in the end, Davis said she now worries that decisions by the new bipartisan commission could become politically skewed in its new home within the secretary of state’s office.
“It leads me to question; will it really be balanced and fair?” asked Davis.
Richter also shared his own skepticism about the new commission with Ohio Investigates.
“Do you have any advice for the folks who will be taking this work on all things considered?” asked 10 Investigates.
“First, be prepared for criticism because it will come,” he said, “It will be certainly interesting to see how [the new commission] develops, but they’re gonna run into the same amount of problems that the current Ohio Elections Commission has experienced.”
The OEIC: Scrutiny, Structure and Strategy
Ohio Investigates took the concerns from outgoing OEC leadership directly to Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
“The concern is that [the commission] may no longer be truly nonpartisan and could potentially have a bias. What is your response or reaction?” asked 10 Investigates.
“It’s going to have the bipartisanship that it needs. It’s also going to have the accountability of the buck stops here, and that’s how it should be,” said LaRose.
LaRose said his office has already made a hire for the commission.
“We found a gentleman named Jim Wernecke. Long time investigator and public safety professional with law enforcement background with the state highway patrol,” said LaRose.
The other four commission members will be chosen by Ohio House and Senate leaders of both major parties.
Once they’re up and running, LaRose added that the commission’s first goal will be to figure out how to get those outstanding fines paid.
“The reality is many of these are years or even decades old. Some of them may have become uncollectible because the people involved have passed on or moved away,” said LaRose, “I hope that a large percentage of them are still collectable, but let’s say maybe 60-70% of them are not. We need to realize that and then write those off.”
Here’s how LaRose claims the new commission’s authority to collect those fines will differ from its predecessor.
“We need to begin the collection actions, get court orders so that you know you can garnish wages, put liens on properties, turn them over to collection agencies and that kind of thing and really start to make sure that that those fines are enforced,” he said.
