Board of Elections pulls its OK on recall

Newton Falls will have 40 days to conduct an election after new recall petitions are filed.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Elections has yanked its approval of petitions calling for recall elections of two Newton Falls councilmen.
However, the man behind the petition drive, Bud Fetterolf, said he will file new petitions by Wednesday to give voters the chance to remove Lester Irwin, 2nd Ward, and Thomas McKee, 4th Ward, from office.
"I could have filed petitions today, but I didn't want to confuse the issue," he said.
Only about 50 signatures from each councilman's ward are required to prompt a recall election, board officials said.
Approval, reversal
On May 24, the board certified that petitions drafted by Fetterolf had sufficient signatures and told the city it had to conduct an election within 40 days.
The board unanimously reversed itself Monday.
It was acting on a protest from the two councilmen, who argued that the petitions were no good because they were missing a precisely worded warning against election falsification.
Atty. Jim Saker, an assistant county prosecutor advising the board, agreed.
"The election statutes are mandatory and must be strictly complied with," Saker said. He recommended the board of elections revoke its certification of the recall petitions.
The law does not prevent Fetterolf from circulating petitions again. If he does, the countdown toward a recall election will begin again when the board certifies those petitions.
"As far as recirculating, that will probably be done," Irwin said. "But Mr. Fetterolf has always been a stickler for doing things properly, so we should probably do this properly."
Half of council
The two councilmen constitute half of village council since the resignation of Harry Benetis in April.
Fetterolf said he thinks the two councilmen are ignoring the views of their constituents, particularly in their support of Streetscape, a controversial downtown redevelopment project.
siff@vindy.com