YOUNGSTOWN Additional votes increase challenger's lead in primary

The elections board director said he doesn't expect any change in the numbers.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Although a recount will be held, Mahoning County election officials expect James E. Fortune Sr. to be declared the Democratic nominee for Youngstown council president.
Fortune increased his lead over council President John R. Swierz after 30 provisional votes were counted Monday by the elections board.
Fortune won the provisional vote 20-10 -- seven other provisional voters didn't cast ballots for the council president's race -- and increased his lead over Swierz to 26 votes, 4,019 to 3,993.
"I feel comfortable where I'm at," Fortune said. "I don't anticipate any change" in the outcome after a recount.
Neither does Michael V. Sciortino, elections board director.
"I'm expecting these numbers to hold up," he said.
By law, the elections board couldn't count the provisional votes, those cast by people who moved into the city 30 days before the election, until Monday. But with a majority of the provisional voters living in precincts that voted for Fortune, it wasn't anticipated that Swierz would gain much ground.
That turned out to be the case as Fortune increased his lead by 10 votes after the provisional votes were counted.
The elections board will meet May 28 to certify the primary election results and schedule a recount for the Youngstown council president's race within 10 days of that meeting.
Recount
Fortune is winning by 0.32 of 1 percent; an automatic recount is held if the margin of victory is 0.5 of 1 percent or less.
People who voted at the polls will have their votes recounted using the county's electronic voting equipment. Those who voted using absentee paper ballots will have their votes counted by optical scanners. The elections board has the option, if it chooses, to count the absentee ballots by hand. With the electronic voting system, there is no way to count ballots cast at the polls by hand.
Swierz is contesting the validity of six provisional ballots cast at the polls -- he lost those votes 5-1 to Fortune -- because none of the six voters filled out applications to vote provisionally. Those ballots should be thrown out, said Donald McTigue, Swierz's attorney and a noted state elections expert.
But Sciortino said the elections board will probably not throw out those ballots because the six voters filled out change of address forms at the polls, which includes the information that is on provisional voter applications.
"We're not going to prohibit them from voting because they didn't fill out a form," he said. "We rule in favor of allowing people to vote."
The person declared the winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Tracey S. Monroe-Winbush in the Nov. 4 general election.
skolnick@vindy.com