Brian Bob Kenderes, the Democratic nominee in the 14th Congressional District against six-term incumbent Republican Dave Joyce, faces a charge of filing a false voter registration.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office charged Kenderes with the fifth-degree felony, alleging he lives in Strongsville but filed his candidate declarations and his voter registration with the Lake County Board of Elections, stating he lives in Mentor.

Kenderes is to be arraigned April 23 in Painesville Municipal Court.

Kenderes, who didn’t respond Friday for requests to comment, was the only Democrat to file for the congressional district.

Kenderes filed three declarations of candidacy, also called nominating petitions, with signatures to get on the ballot with the elections board dated Dec. 15, 16 and 19, stating he lives at 8930 Doral Drive in Mentor, as well as a voter registration form on Dec. 15 with the same Mentor address, according to a criminal complaint from Detective Matthew A. Byers of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

After the elections board sent a letter to Kenderes at 8903 Doral Drive acknowledging his registration, his brother and sister-in-law, who live at that address, informed the board he does not live there and has never lived there, according to Byers’ report.

The couple — Joseph and Jill Kenderes — said Kenderes has lived at 9049 Prospect Road in Strongsville since 2017. Before that, he lived in Garfield Heights.

The board forwarded the information to the county prosecutor who then sent it to the sheriff’s office for investigation.

The candidate “refused to speak with detectives regarding the investigation,” Byers wrote.

In a handwritten letter, provided by the sheriff’s office, Jill Kenderes said she opened the letter from the board to her brother-in-law, believing it was for her or her husband and learned about the candidate’s voter registration at their address.

“Brian has never lived at our home, is not currently and does not have my permission or my husband’s to use our address,” she wrote.

Kenderes’ personal LinkedIn profile gives his hometown as Strongsville.

Kenderes ran two years ago as a write-in in the 7th Congressional District, receiving 35 votes. At the time, he told the Wooster Daily Record that he lived in Brunswick in Medina County.

Joyce’s campaign declined to comment “on an ongoing legal matter.”

The 14th District includes all of Trumbull, Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga counties and all but two communities in Portage County.

Mentor is in Lake County, the district’s most-populous county while Strongsville is in Cuyahoga County.

A congressional candidate needs only to live in Ohio and not in the district to seek that office.

The 14th District has a 10% Republican advantage based on voting trends in partisan statewide elections in the past decade.

But Joyce of Bainbridge beat Democrat Matt Kilboy by 23.5% in the 2022 election.

Joyce, who is seeking his seventh two-year term in Congress, won the March 19 Republican primary against two other candidates, capturing 76.7% of the vote.

Joyce raised $1.3 million and spent $1.07 million on his campaign as of Feb. 28. With his large carryover from previous elections, Joyce had $2.2 million in his fund as of Feb. 28.

Kenderes hasn’t filed any campaign finance reports with the Federal Elections Commission.