YOUNGSTOWN Elections board lets candidate back on ballot

The elections board also refunded the Campbell candidate's $30 write-in fee.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- One candidate is back on the ballot, and another one is gone.
The Mahoning County Board of Elections reinstated Steve Sferra of Goretti Drive as a Campbell 1st Ward city councilman candidate. The board had kicked him off the ballot July 23 because he did not date his statement of candidacy form.
Sferra filed a formal protest, but elections board officials said they thought Sferra had dropped his protest when he filed as a write-in candidate for the council seat. Sferra said that was not the case. When Sferra found out that the board had reinstated another candidate previously disqualified because she didn't date her statement of candidacy, he demanded the board hear his protest.
Fee refunded: Not only did the board reinstate Sferra as a candidate, it refunded the $30 fee he paid to file as a write-in.
"Technically, we're not permitted to do that," said Mark Munroe, elections board chairman, shortly before he joined the three other board members in agreeing to refund Sferra's write-in fee.
The board in the past has disqualified candidates for not dating or putting the wrong date on statements of candidacy. But the board decided Monday to reinstate those kicked off the ballot for date errors or omissions on their statements of candidacy if they proved their nominating petitions were otherwise in "substantial compliance" with the law.
Candidate withdraws: Also Friday, Bruce R. Kirkland of Skyline Drive withdrew as a candidate for the Canfield Board of Education. That leaves eight candidates running for three board seats.
Michael K. Write of Carlotta Drive filed Friday as a write-in candidate for a two-year unexpired term on the Youngstown Board of Education.
There are now four people running as write-in candidates for the two-year term. No candidates filed nominating petitions for the two-year seat on the board. Whoever gets the most write-in votes -- as long as they filed as write-in candidates -- during the Nov. 6 election will get the seat. Monday is the deadline to file as a write-in candidate.
skolnick@vindy.com