A four-year employee of the Lucas County Board of Elections was dismissed Tuesday following an investigation that blamed her for 156 test votes ending up as part of the unofficial count from the March 6 primary election.

The board voted 4-0 to fire Michelle Dudley, information technology manager for the computer systems that are used to record and count votes.

In a report to the board Tuesday, Elections Director Meghan Gallagher said that Ms. Dudley was in charge of "logic and accuracy" testing of the voting machines before the election, but that she had not ensured that all the test votes were cleared out of all the machines.

"Because this task was not completed, we received at least nine calls on election day where we had to go out and clear test votes from the machine and set them for the election," Ms. Gallagher said.

She said Ms. Dudley denied it was her job and refused to respond to an email seeking an explanation.

"I attempted to get clarification from Ms. Dudley. I was unable to get complete responses from her," Ms. Gallagher said.

Ms. Dudley, a Democrat, was hired in 2008 and was being paid $59,934.

The two Democrats and two Republicans on the elections board deadlocked in February over firing Ms. Dudley after Republicans complained that she had walked off the job while doing logic and accuracy testing, costing the board more than $10,000 in overtime for other employees to do her work. At the time, Democrats said the Republican complaints were overblown.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted refused to break the deadlock, telling the board to solve its own personnel issues.

The vote to fire Ms. Dudley on Tuesday was taken after Ms. Gallagher described how the incomplete testing process had resulted in test votes being left on the memory cards that are used to record the votes cast in the machines. Ms. Gallagher said the test votes were identified and removed through a bipartisan process before the March 6 vote was certified.

Before going into executive session, the elections board agreed in a 4-0 vote that clearing the memory cards and machines of the logic and accuracy test votes is part of the job of the information technology manager.

Attorney Jerome Phillips, who has represented Ms. Dudley before the board in the past, said he had not been brought into the dispute, but he said he was concerned that she was not called in to defend herself.

"You would think she would be notified of the hearing if it was going to involve her position and allow her to present her side," Mr. Phillips said.

Ms. Dudley had been questioned in January in connection with alleged hacking of Republican employees' email accounts in December. The case was investigated by Toledo Police and the FBI and the Lucas County Prosecutor but no action was taken.

The board on Tuesday also voted to fire employee Ida Hartfield, a Republican who was hired in 2008 and paid $14.67 per hour. No explanation was given for her dismissal.

Board Chairman Ron Rothenbuhler said he was advised by the board's lawyers not to comment on the personnel actions.

The board also voted unanimously to withdraw a 2-2 tie vote to fire Democrat Daniel DeAngelis as deputy director. The tie vote had been pending before Secretary of State Husted.

In other action, the board began an audit of the votes cast at nine randomly selected polling places. The audit was mandated as part of the settlement of a federal court case brought by the League of Women Voters.

The vote audit will take place at 9 a.m. April 23 at the Early Vote Center, 1302 Washington St.

Contact Tom Troy at: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.

First Published April 4, 2012, 4:35 a.m.