Local Politics: Who is that at the bottom of my ballot?

The 2026 midterm elections are on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and if you’ve been online at all or watched any TV in the last month, you’ve likely heard about the Ohio gubernatorial race and the contentious Republican political ad campaigns surrounding it. But as is so often the case, sensationalized, high-level races like these leave down-ballot local candidates in the dust.

If you’re voting – and you are encouraged to vote! – in Columbus next week, these are the candidates you may see further down your ballot sheet, the offices for which they’re running, and the promises they’re making on the campaign trail. These people are likely to have more of an impact on your everyday Columbus life, so it’s important to know who they are and for what they stand. 

Franklin County has nine positions up for election. The first of these is the County Auditor. 

The County Auditor is responsible for managing the county’s finances. The ACLU of Ohio describes this as, “The Auditor’s General Accounting Department is the watchdog over all county funds and maintains the official records of all receipts, disbursements and fund balances.” On a more concrete level, the Auditor also does things like assess property values, as well as issue licenses for dogs and vendors. 

This position is currently held by Michael Stinziano, who cares about “outstanding constituent services and fiscal common sense.” Stinziano was first elected in 2019 and is running again this year, unopposed. 

The next position, however, is a race: one of the three County Commissioners’ terms expires at the end of this year. 

The Franklin County Commission is kind of like a county-level City Council. It serves as the administrative and budget appropriations body for Franklin County and oversees positions such as the County Auditor and the Sheriff’s Office, as well as broader issues like regional road maintenance and correctional systems. It can also set strategic priorities for the county, including public safety and education. 

This year, Commissioner Erica Crawley’s term is expiring at the end of December. She is a Democrat, running for reelection against Libertarian challenger Eric Terford. 

Crawley cares about “high-quality childcare, affordable housing, supportive addiction, mental health treatment, better maternal health outcomes, and first-rate veteran services.” In her term, she helped allocate $22.5 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding into schools and has taken over Columbus’s city-run Early Start pre-school program to expand it to a county level. (She has also recently been caught up in her share of controversies.)

Terford advanced from the Libertarian primary in May as a write-in candidate with 50.8 percent of the vote. He does not appear to have a formal campaign website, but in responses to iVoter Guide, wrote that he strongly supports free enterprise and described his personal values as, “Treat others the way you want to be treated and judge not least you be judged.”

The remaining seven positions are judgeships for the Court of Common Pleas. This might look a little strange on your ballot because of how the elections system for courts in Ohio works: You’ll see four “General” sections and two “Domestic Relations” division sections, each with only one person in them. Are these people running against each other? Does it matter who you vote for if they’re the only one in their section, even though they’re all running for a position with the same name? 

There are three divisions of the Common Pleas court, each of which has a set number of elected judges. The General Division has 17 judges, the Domestic Relations Division has five, and the Probate Division has one.

The terms of these judges are set to expire in waves, so that there aren’t 23 judgeships up for election all at the same time. Because of this, each judgeship is considered its own position, and candidates have to choose which specific term they want to run for. 

The Probate Division, which handles wills, estates, and family legal matters, is the only race with competition. Democrat Kelly Green, the court’s current chief magistrate, is running against Republican Chris Junga, an attorney. (It’s important to note that Ohio law requires judges to run as nonpartisan candidates, so these affiliations aren’t listed on the ballot; however, each of these candidates won the right to move to the general election in their respective partisan primaries. The other six people running for judgeships, described above, are all Democrats.)

Green cares about “fairness, compassion, and respect.” She has “open[ed] a free legal resource center for small estates, partner[ed] with Legal Aid to support families in guardianship cases, and connect[ed] with LGBTQ+ Ohioans through free clinics that assist with name and birth record changes.” Junga has been working with individual people for 25 years across “complex criminal, civil, probate, and other high-stakes cases.” 

This year, four terms in the General Division and two in the Domestic Relations Division are up for election. Each of those positions has only one person running for them, unopposed. 

Carl Aveni, Andy Miller, David Young and Chris Brown are the four incumbent judges running to keep their positions in the General Division. Nobody is running against them, and because their terms are staggered, they are not running against each other. In the Domestic Relations Division, Lasheyl Stroud is also running for reelection unopposed. The other judge whose term expires this cycle, ​​George Leach, is not running for reelection; Kelley Gabrielle Boller is running unopposed to take his place. 

But there’s no competition. Does it matter if you fill in the bubble for Aveni, or Boller, or even County Auditor Stinziano? 

Technically, no. Since these people are running unopposed, they are highly likely to win their positions no matter how many votes they actually get. But voting here is still an important metric of community support. If, for example, one General Division candidate receives 1,000 votes, and another receives 10,000, they’ll both be elected – but the latter’s positions, ruling record, and approach to applying the law will evidently have stronger resonance with what the community wants. This is a good place to show your support of particular causes. 

Plus, if you’re voting in the other races, the ballot is already in front of you. What’s a little extra ink?

Besides these local positions, Franklin County will elect three State Senators and 12 State Representatives on Tuesday. Filling out a sample ballot through the Secretary of State’s website is a good way to find which of these Senators or Representatives you’ll be choosing from, so you can get a sense of what their policies are before you head to the polls.