Ohio Rev. Code » Chapter 3513
Ohio Revised Code

Ohio Rev. Code § 3513.17 (2026)

Death of candidate before primary election

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Effective:
September 28, 1959
Latest Legislation:
Senate Bill 72 - 103rd General Assembly
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If a person who has filed a declaration of candidacy, whose candidacy is to be submitted at a primary election to the electors of the entire state, dies prior to the tenth day before the day of such primary election, the secretary of state, upon proof of the death of such candidate, shall make certification of such death to the boards of elections of the state, and the name of such deceased candidate shall not appear on the ballots.

If a person who has filed a declaration of candidacy, whose candidacy is to be submitted at a primary election to the electors of a district comprised of more than one county but less than all the counties of the state, dies prior to the tenth day before the day of such primary election, the board of the most populous county of such district shall, upon proof of the death of such candidate, make certification of such death to the boards of such district, and the name of such deceased candidate shall not appear on the ballots.

If a person who has filed a declaration of candidacy, whose candidacy is to be submitted at a primary election to the electors of a subdivision smaller than a county but situated in more than one county, dies prior to the tenth day before the day of such primary election, the board of the county in which the major portion of the population of such subdivision is located shall, upon proof of the death of such candidate, make certification of such death to the boards of the other counties in which portions of the population of such subdivision are located, and the name of such deceased candidate shall not appear on the ballots.

If a person who has filed a declaration of candidacy, whose candidacy is to be submitted at a primary election to the electors of a county, or district or subdivision within a county, dies prior to the fifth day before the day of such primary election, upon proof of the death of such candidate to the board, the name of such deceased candidate shall not appear on the ballots.

If, at the time such certification or proof of death of a candidate is received by a board, ballots carrying the name of the deceased candidate have been printed, such board shall cause strips of paper to be pasted on such ballots so as to cover the name of the deceased candidate before such ballots are delivered to electors; except that in voting places using marking devices, the board shall cause strips of paper bearing the revised list of candidates for the office, after eliminating the deceased candidate's name, to be pasted on such ballot cards so as to cover the name or names formerly shown, before such ballot cards are delivered to the electors.

In no case shall votes cast for a deceased candidate be counted or recorded.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1988–1992 · leading case: State ex rel. Ashbrook v. Brown, 529 N.E.2d 896 (Ohio 1988).
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State ex rel. Ashbrook v. Brown, 529 N.E.2d 896 (Ohio 1988). · cites it 7× “R.C. 3513.17 requires removal from the primary ballot of the name of a candidate for county office who dies more than five days before the primary election.”
State ex rel. White v. Franklin Cnty. Bd. of Elections, 598 N.E.2d 1152 (Ohio 1992). “We stopped short of ordering that all the deceased candidate’s votes be counted only because this was specifically prohibited by R.C. 3513.17. Ashbrook also defeats respondents’ best argument for denying the relief in this case — that Testa cannot logically be declared the…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.