Ohio GOP files election complaint against Democratic Party

The Ohio Republican Party has filed a complaint with federal election officials, claiming the Ohio Democratic Party sent mailers without required disclaimers to identify the source of the brochures or who paid for them.

The flyers, encouraging support for federal, state and local Democratic candidates, had return addresses and postage meter stamps indicating they came from the ODP, the complaint states. But the mailings didn't include boxes printed on them with a "paid for by" disclaimer or text indicating ODP sent the mailings, the Ohio Republican Party claims.

“Using disclaimers are like Campaign 101, so I’m baffled as to why Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party aren’t following the law. This is a clear and obvious violation of federal election law,” said Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges. “Just like their nominee for president of the United States, the Ohio Democratic Party appears to believe that federal laws do not apply to them.”

The complaint was filed with Federal Election Commission on Oct. 17 but released to the media Thursday morning. The FEC is unlikely to address the complaint before Election Day on Tuesday.

"We are still reviewing the complaint, but we are confident in everything we have done," said Kirstin Alvanitakis, spokeswoman for the Ohio Democratic Party. "The Ohio Republican Party team should go back to making fake Twitter accounts attacking Donald Trump because their legal attacks are a complete waste of time.”

Alvanitakis is referring to a parody Twitter account created by the ORP's executive director mocking Trump's state campaign director, Bob Paduchik. The account has since been deleted.