ASHLAND – In the race for Ashland County Clerk of Courts, voters overwhelmingly supported incumbent Republican Deborah Myers over challenger Michael Zickefoose.
Myers won with nearly 72 percent of the 18,116 votes cast in the race, according to final, unofficial vote totals from the Ashland County Board of Elections.
Once results were in, Myers said she felt grateful and humbled.
“I want to thank all the voters of Ashland County for their support in this election,” she said. “I’m looking forward to working with the other elected officials, the court and my staff.”
Myers was appointed clerk by the Ashland County Republican Party Central Committee in May, after Annette Shaw resigned to take a position as Ashland Municipal Court clerk of courts. Cathy Bishop served briefly as interim clerk of courts before Myers was chosen by her party.
Myers came to her current position from the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office, where she spent eight years as a corrections division secretary, overseeing the inmates’ commissary and providing accounting and secretarial support to the jail administrator.
Prior to that, Myers was a dispatcher for the Ohio State High Patrol’s Ashland Post and was a deputy clerk in the Ashland County Clerk of Courts office from 1996 through 2001.
An Ashland native who grew up in Polk and graduated from Mapleton High School, Myers lives with her husband, Kenny, in northern Ashland County. The pair have three adult sons.
Zickefoose works in claims processing at Walmart and also runs a small bread-baking business, Brot Baking.
At a meet the candidates night prior to the election, Myers outlined some of the goals she plans to accomplish. She said she plans to transition the county to the use of electronic fingerprint cards, revamp the court costs collection process and implement e-filing for common pleas court records.
Though he felt a twinge of disappointment on election night, Zickefoose remained optimistic.
“It has been such a positive experience, just getting out there and being part of democracy in action,” he said. “I’m proud of the campaign I ran, and I’m proud of Ashland for the support they showed us both.”
Asked whether he will run again for public office, Zickefoose said that is “a definite possibility.”
