AN OPEN LETTER TO FRANKLIN COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS CHAIRMAN DOUG PREISSE
— jackwindsor (@jackwindsor) September 29, 2026
Chairman Preisse,
On Monday, you presided over a public hearing on whether State Representative Ismail Mohamed (D-Columbus) lives in the district he was elected to represent. Monday I emailed you three… pic.twitter.com/OD7fPgDsk5
AN OPEN LETTER TO FRANKLIN COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS CHAIRMAN DOUG PREISSE
Chairman Preisse,
On Monday, you presided over a public hearing on whether State Representative Ismail Mohamed (D-Columbus) lives in the district he was elected to represent. Monday I emailed you three direct questions about how you ran the hearing. Your assistant called my office while I was in show preparation. I could not take the call, unfortunately. The call did not answer the questions. As of this writing, neither have you.
I am publishing this letter because your silence so far tells me you intend to shirk your duty to answer. Franklin County voters and the Ohio taxpayers who fund your board deserve to see the questions you were asked, and they deserve to see whether you answer them.
You chair the Franklin County Board of Elections. You are a public official. Refusing to answer direct questions about a public proceeding you ran is not conduct becoming of that office. If these questions go unanswered by 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 30, my report will state that you were asked and did not respond.
Here is what I watched Monday.
Under oath, Rep. Mohamed admitted the mortgage he signed on the $587,000 Delaware County home declares him married and declares the home his principal residence. He testified the house is really an investment property, then admitted it has not been rented in the past year and is not on his financial disclosure (which it should be if it’s genuinely an investment property and not his primary residence). He blamed the false declarations made in the mortgage documents on his girlfriend and a pre-filled form, and the inaccurate and false financial disclosure on his staff. He originally claimed he lived at his Columbus address from January 5 to March 5, 2026 — a period when records show the power there was shut off and temperatures dipped to nine degrees below zero. Yesterday he seemed to change his story and indicated he was both out of the country and staying with his mother during those months the power was out.
Every one of those answers goes to one question: where does this man actually live?
A witness – who is allegedly a registered and practicing attorney - who admits signing false declarations on legal documents is a witness whose credibility is the case. Attorney Curt Hartman was walking him through those documents – attempting to show each place where he made false declarations – when you repeatedly interrupted and asked where he was going with the line of questioning.
So I am asking you, in public, what I asked you in private:1. Why did you interrupt Mr. Hartman while he was examining the witness on the documents that bear on residency and point to his credibility?
2. What line of questioning did you consider out of bounds, and on what basis?
3. Does the board consider a respondent's sworn admission of false statements on a mortgage, a financial disclosure and a county tax record relevant to whether he lives where he says he lives?
4. When a public official makes declarations on multiple legal documents — which Attorney Hartman tried to show several times amid repeated interruptions from you — why would the board not believe those declarations?
5. While Ms. Adheys was examined, you asked her whether she would be offended if the examination included the body-worn-camera video of the deputy serving the subpoena, in which she is not wearing a head covering. That video is a public record of a public act. Why did you put the question to the witness? Does the board have a written rule or precedent that allows a witness to decide which public records may be shown during her own examination, and if so, what is it? And – in retrospect – do you stand by the question you asked, which allowed the witness to direct the examination?
6. You stopped Mr. Hartman's questioning on the meaning of the religious marriage referenced in the record. The mortgage on the Delaware County home declares the respondent married. Whether he is married, and to whom, bears directly on who lives in that house. On what basis was that line of questioning cut off?
7. The board accepted a sworn affidavit from the individual identified as Rep. Mohamed's new roommate in place of live testimony. The challengers were not able to cross-examine him. Why did the board accept an affidavit from the one witness who could speak to the claimed current residence rather than require his appearance?
8. What standard of proof did the board apply in reaching its decision — clear and convincing, preponderance, or another — and did the board state that standard on the record before deliberating? I did not hear it announced.
9. The board placed the burden on the challengers to prove the respondent does not reside at his registered address. Given that the respondent's own sworn testimony contradicted the mortgage, the county tax record and his financial disclosure, how did the board weigh his credibility in deciding whether that burden was met?
10. Will the board release the full hearing record — audio or video, the exhibits admitted, and the affidavit referenced in Question 7 — as public records? If so, when, and to whom should the request be directed?
The deadline is 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 30. I will take your answers in writing or on the record by phone. Whatever you say — or do not say — will be reported.
Jack Windsor
Editor-in-Chief, The Ohio Press Network
Host, The Windsor Report, 98.9 FM The Answer
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