Upcoming Election for Full-Term Board Seats

Three Full-Term Board Seats Up for Election

Two employee-member seats and one retiree-member seat are up for election with the terms beginning July 1, 2021, and ending June 30, 2025. Any member of SERS, other than a disability benefit recipient, is eligible to run for an employee-member seat, and any SERS disability or service retiree is eligible to run for a retiree member seat.

Because of the ongoing state restrictions on large gatherings and efforts to maintain social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19, SERS is making changes to its Board election nominating petition process for this election.

To be considered for election, the following requirements must be met:

Employee-Member seat

• Obtain signatures of 500 SERS members on a paper or electronic nominating petition provided by SERS with not less than 20 signatures of members from each of at least 10 counties where those members are employed
• Make sure that each signing member indicates his or her employer, county of employment, and last four digits of his or her Social Security number or SERS member ID

Retiree-Member seat

• Obtain signatures of 150 SERS retirees on a paper or electronic nominating petition provided by SERS with not less than 10 signatures of retirees from each of at least five counties where those retirees reside
• Make sure that each retiree signing the paper nominating petition indicates his or her county of residence and last four digits of his or her Social Security number or SERS member ID

All seats

• Begin gathering signatures on or after August 3, 2020 (Official Nominating Petition form below)
• Deliver paper petitions with original signatures and a completed original Certification Form to the SERS office no later than 4:30 p.m., EST, December 4, 2020; electronic signature collection also will end at this time

The change in the nomination process includes the ability for active and retired members to sign an electronic petition form on SERS’ website to nominate a candidate. The electronic form is secure and requires the same information as the paper form. Members may provide only one signature either on paper or electronically. Multiple submissions from one person for the same candidate will not be counted. Persons interested in running for the open seats must contact Tim Barbour at tbarbour@ohsers.org to have an electronic form on the SERS website created with their name.

Visit our Board Election page for an election timeline and a description of the Board’s responsibilities. If you have questions regarding these elections, please contact Tim Barbour, External Communications Supervisor, by phone at 614-222-5901 or by email at tbarbour@ohsers.org.