The Republican race for Trumbull County auditor is one of the most interesting in the May 5 primary.

Incumbent Martha Yoder is bidding for a second term against GOP challengers Stacy A. Marling, the current deputy auditor in Mahoning County — who also serves as Bazetta Township’s fiscal officer — and former state Rep. Mike Loychik.

In Yoder’s first campaign, she emphasized increased accessibility, transparency and fiscal responsibility.

“We made a lot of progress,” Yoder said. “We revamped our website to make information more accessible by moving those things that could be legally done online. In the second term, we will do more of that.”

She also said her office discovered errors in the previous administration’s handling of Current Agricultural UseValue (CAUV) transfers.

“I found out on my second day,” Yoder said. “We learned a lot. We figured out what happened and what we needed to do to correct it. The initial correction was $2 million in refunds.”

This election isn’t the first battle between Yoder and Marling, the central figures in an unfortunate 2024 cyber crime in which hackers gained control of Marling’s email account. They then emailed the auditor’s office and were able to convince an employee that the township had changed its bank account to Green Dot Bank, an online bank based in California.

As a result, two payments totaling more than $160,000 in tax settlements were direct deposited into a fraudulent account. The first, in the amount of $80,857, was lost. The second payment was able to be stopped.

Yoder argued that Marling was at fault for disabling two-factor authentication on her township email account, allowing the hackers access. Marling and Bazetta officials argued that a simple call to the township would have revealed the scam before any money was diverted.

Yoder refused to reissue the original payment of more than $80,000, resulting in a legal battle that lasted more than a year. She lost the original court case in Trumbull County and eventually, the 11th District Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against her.

Finally, in December 2025, Marling announced that Bazetta had received the original $80,857 and $8,947.95 in interest. But there was no need for the saga to drag on that long or to have involved the courts at all. Yoder also later threatened to involve the courts in a dispute with the Trumbull County Commissioners over her funding request for the auditor’s office.

Marling admitted disabling two-factor authentication because it was interfering with the township’s payroll process.

“My email was hacked,” Marling said. “However, the email that was sent originally to the auditor’s office had a lot of red flags. If somebody picked up the phone and called, this would not have ever happened. We’ve known that you do not accept any emails for changing banking information.”

We agree that the entire situation was easily avoidable. While the errant transfer wasn’t actually done by Yoder, but by one of her employees, it points to a leadership issue within the auditor’s office that ultimately cost the county more than $80,000.

State Auditor Keith Faber’s office had, in fact, warned county auditors across Ohio about cyber scams like the one perpetrated here, but it appears that the suggested caution wasn’t relayed to Yoder’s staff until it was too late.

That’s one reason the editorial board is endorsing Marling in the primary. The winner will face Democrat Edward D. Stredney in November’s general election.

Loychik, who operates a consulting firm and a pressure-washing business, also brought up the need for better leadership in the auditor’s office in his endorsement interview. He represented the state’s 63rd District from 2021-22, before redistricting took place. He represented the 65th District from 2023-24. He was appointed to Ohio House’s appropriations committee during his term.

The county auditor does not have to be an accountant or be a certified public accountant, he said.

“The county auditor is a watchdog. It is an administrative position that requires leadership,” Loychik said.

We agree, but we’re not certain his experience — while varied — translates well to the auditor’s office. There will be a learning curve and, as seen in Yoder’s first term, that can be troublesome.

Does Trumbull County have time for another inexperienced auditor to learn on the job?

Marling, however, has worked in the Mahoning County auditor’s office since 2007 and has been its chief deputy since 2015. Even Loychik said that Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham’s office is well run.