COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Elections Commission , or the OEC, works to make sure candidates and political groups are following campaign finance law — and levies fines when they're not.

It's work they've been doing since 1974.

But their efforts have been heavily criticized by state leaders who say they're not collecting enough.

In a partnership with its Ohio sister stations WTOL in Toledo and WKYC in Cleveland, called "Ohio Investigates," 10TV embarked on a five-month investigation into these concerns.

An analysis by Ohio Investigates found a troubling trend — almost $96 million of the penalties that the commission has handed out since 1987 remains uncollected.

Those numbers show that about $5.8 million of that money owed is connected to central Ohio candidates, organizations and ca

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