A second transgender candidate running for the majority Republican Ohio House could be disqualified from the ballot after omitting her former name on circulating petitions.

A second transgender candidate running for a seat in the Republican-majority Ohio House is at risk of being disqualified from the ballot after omitting her former name on circulating petitions.

The Mercer County Board of Elections is set to vote Thursday on whether Arienne Childrey, a Democrat from Auglaize County and one of four transgender individuals campaigning for the Legislature, is eligible to run after not disclosing her previous name, also known as her deadname, on her petition paperwork.

A little-used Ohio elections law, unfamiliar even to many state elections officials, mandates that candidates disclose any name changes in the last five years on their petitions paperwork, with exemptions for name changes due to marriage. But the law isn’t listed in the 33-page candidate requirement guide and there is no space on the petition paperwork to list any former names.

  • originalucifer
    -26•6 months ago

    not really. i read into this a bit, and realllly this is people choosing to fight a losing a battle while attempting a war.

    this person could have played by [their] rules, and achieved some success in that arena. instead, they chose to not perform due diligence and/or draw a line in the sand preventing any success. they are losing the good through the the chase of perfect.

    this is the second person ive seen who is not seeing that they could achieve something big later, if they play by the ‘silly’ rules now.

    if you want to achieve something in government youre going to have to make compromises to get there.

    • @[email protected]
      42•6 months ago

      But the law isn’t listed in the 33-page candidate requirement guide and there is no space on the petition paperwork to list any former names.

    • kick_out_the_jams
      32•6 months ago

      “I would have filled out whatever was necessary, because at the end of the day, while it would have been a hit to my pride, there is something much more important than my pride, and that’s fighting for this community,” Childrey said.

      Make sure you didn’t miss what they actually had to say about it.

    • @[email protected]
      14•6 months ago

      It isn’t that they don’t want to list previous names it’s that the law was buried and not made apparent to the candidate. It wasn’t on the candidate requirement guide, the petition has no space for former names, many people weren’teven aware of the law’s existence.

      While I don’t disagree with the law in theory (listing previous names in normal for things like background checks) it’s clear this law was dug up specifically to try to disqualify the candidate in bad faith.

    • @Cuberoot
      0•6 months ago

      The candidate is running as a trans Democrat for District 84. The other case you’re referring to is for District 50 which the dems didn’t even contest in 2022.

      If they played by the rules, they’d have both lost in a landslide and nobody would have noticed or cared. This news story is the best win they could have hoped for.