A Bartholomew County judge has granted a request from a former Columbus mayoral candidate to postpone a hearing and set a deadline for next month to respond to legal action from the Bartholomew County Election Board.
Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin pushed back a hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday to July 28 and gave former mayoral candidate Sean Burton until July 21 to respond to a petition filed by the election board, according to court filings.
Burton’s attorney, Heather Schuh-Ogle, argued in court filings that the hearing should be postponed because she “was just retained and needs additional time to prepare for a hearing” and has a scheduling conflict. She also stated in court filings that an attorney representing the election board did not object to postponing the hearing.
In a separate motion, Schuh-Ogle questioned whether Burton had been served with notice of the legal proceedings and asked for the deadline for him to respond to the legal action to be set on or after July 21.
“The chronological case summary for this case indicates that Mr. Burton has not been served with notice of these proceedings; however, counsel for plaintiff indicated in an email to Mr. Burton’s counsel that he believes service was perfected on May 30, 2025,” the motion states.
The motion also states that “the service notice seems to indicate documents were left at (Burton’s) residence, but there was no envelope provided to mail a copy of the defendant,” as allegedly required under state law.
“If service occurred on May 30, 2025, Mr. Burton’s response would be due on June 20, 2025; if service has not occurred, there is no due date for his response at present,” the motion states.
In May, the three-member bipartisan election board asked a judge to order Burton to pay $2,375 for allegedly failing to file a required campaign finance report and reimburse the board for attorney’s fees.
Burton ran as an independent in the 2023 municipal election, losing to Republican nominee Mary Ferdon by a margin of 73% to 27%.
Court records state that the board has issued a series of fines against Burton and incurred $1,875 in attorney’s fees. The board has also requested 8% interest to accrue from the date of the court’s judgment until the amount is paid in full.
The board is being represented by Columbus attorney Peter Campbell King, according to court records.
The issue that eventually led to the legal action started earlier this year when Burton allegedly failed to file a required campaign finance report by a state-imposed deadline.
Candidates who have an open campaign finance committee are required under state law to file an annual campaign finance report even if they were not actively running for office that year. The 2024 annual reports were due Jan. 15 at noon.
The last campaign finance report Burton filed was in February 2024, according to county records. His campaign committee, Committee to Elect Sean Burton, reported raising $3,401 during the 2023 mayoral race and having $2.42 in cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2023.
Public records indicate that county election officials have made several attempts to notify Burton of the delinquent filing and election board hearings regarding the matter.
Bartholomew County Clerk Shari Lentz, who is a member of the election board, declined to comment on the case last month.
However, Lentz previously described the situation with Burton as entering “uncharted territory.”
“We’ve kind of entered uncharted territory as far as campaign finance is considered,” Lentz said previously.
