Keegan-Ayer lawsuit alleges Di Cola should be disqualified over residency

Aug. 10—Frederick County Council President M.C. Keegan-Ayer has filed a lawsuit alleging that challenger Jazmin Di Cola — who won the Democratic nomination for the District 3 council seat by three votes — does not live in District 3 and should be disqualified.

District 3 — which Keegan-Ayer has represented on the council since 2014 — covers the western half of the city of Frederick.

Di Cola previously owned a home on Sawmill Court in the North Crossing neighborhood, in the northwestern part of the city, according to state property records. The home, which Di Cola listed as the contact address for her campaign when she filed to run in February 2021, is within the boundaries of District 3.

She and Antonio Schiano Di Cola sold the Sawmill Court home on May 9, 2022, records show.

When a News-Post reporter asked Di Cola if she had changed addresses, she wrote in a text message on Aug. 2 that she had "moved back to beautiful Hillcrest" and was living on Lauren Court in West Frederick.

The Lauren Court address also is in County Council District 3.

But according to an affidavit filed Tuesday by Keegan-Ayer's lawyers, Di Cola is actually a resident of the Apartments at Wellington Trace, in Ballenger Creek. The apartment complex is within District 1, according to a state election database. Keegan-Ayer's lawsuit alleges that the apartment complex is in District 4.

The affidavit was signed by a person who served Di Cola with legal documents. On Saturday, the person hand-delivered the documents to Di Cola in the parking lot of the Wellington Trace complex, the affidavit says.

Attached to the affidavit was a manifest, signed by Di Cola, saying she had received the documents and listing her address as "6710 B Overton." That's part of the Wellington Trace complex — the same address Keegan-Ayer lists in her complaint.

The affidavit also says the person returned to deliver more documents on Monday and spoke with a leasing agent and a maintenance person at the complex, both of whom confirmed Di Cola was a resident of the 6710 block of Overton Circle.

Contacted by the News-Post on Tuesday, Di Cola referred questions to her attorney, Bernard Semler.

In a text message Tuesday night, Semler wrote that Di Cola "does not wish to comment at this time" and will be "filing her responsive pleading tomorrow morning."

No one answered the door at the apartment believed to be Di Cola's in the Wellington Trace complex or at the house on Lauren Court where she told the News-Post on Aug. 2 that she lived.

The Frederick County Charter says that County Council candidates must live within the district they are seeking to represent "for at least one year prior to election or appointment."

The charter does not further define "one year prior."

County Attorney Bryon Black was not available Tuesday evening to comment.

Keegan-Ayer also named the Frederick County Board of Elections as a defendant in her suit, which was filed Thursday in Frederick County Circuit Court.

In her complaint, Keegan-Ayer alleges election officials ignored reports about Di Cola's residency and should not have allowed her to appear on the ballot or certified the election with her as the winner.

But a lawyer representing the board wrote in a response that the board received only one email about Di Cola's residency prior to certifying the election on Aug. 1. The email was sent July 26 — one week after the July 19 primary — and it alleged Di Cola wasn't a resident of District 3, the board response says.

The email didn't include any proof, the board wrote, and it didn't constitute a formal complaint.

Plus, the deadline to challenge a primary candidate's residency was on April 21, the board wrote. A state election calendar says a registered voter must file a petition in circuit court to challenge a candidate's residency.

"[The email] was not only hearsay, but also, untimely," the board's response reads.

According to Keegan-Ayer's complaint, on primary election day, Di Cola voted at Monocacy Middle School, which would have been her polling place had she still been living on Sawmill Court.

In its response to Keegan-Ayer's complaint, the Board of Elections confirmed this.

The board also confirmed Keegan-Ayer's assertion that Di Cola signed her voting authority card that day using the Sawmill Court address, despite the fact that the house had been sold two months earlier.

In her lawsuit, Keegan-Ayer says she learned on Aug. 2 about the voting authority card that Di Cola signed. She says it is "highly likely" that Di Cola voted for herself, and argues that that Di Cola's vote should be disqualified because she doesn't live in District 3.

Keegan-Ayer could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Keegan-Ayer's campaign and Cheryl Dapsauski, a Frederick County voter, are also listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Daniel Loftus, an attorney representing the Frederick County Board of Elections, said in a phone interview Tuesday that the board should not be a party to the case.

The board didn't violate any election laws, Loftus wrote in his response to Keegan-Ayer's complaint, and it is not an investigatory agency.

"We are impartial. We have no stake in this," Loftus said. "This is just between M.C. and Ms. Di Cola."

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m. in Frederick County Circuit Court. Keegan-Ayer asked for the case to be expedited because of an upcoming deadline to certify the ballot for the November general election.

A judge will eventually decide whether to disqualify Di Cola based on the facts that each side presents, Loftus said.

If Di Cola is disqualified, the Frederick County Democratic Central Committee has until Aug. 19 to nominate another candidate for the general election.

The news of Keegan-Ayer's lawsuit comes after the board of elections announced it would vote on Wednesday to decertify the results of the July 19 primary.

Keegan-Ayer had requested a recount in the race, which she lost by three votes.

While preparing for the recount, which had been scheduled to begin this week, election officials discovered a "discrepancy between the total number of votes in the certified results and the number of accepted mail-in and provisional ballots."

The Frederick County Board of Elections canceled the recount and is set to rescan all mail-in and provisional ballots starting Wednesday morning.

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