Lack of signatures leads board to drop liquor option from ballot
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Board of Elections tossed only one liquor option off the November ballot today because it didn't have enough valid signatures.
Removed from the ballot was a liquor option to permit the sale of beer, wine and mixed beverages at Canfield Beverage, 6641 S. Raccoon Road.
The option needed 135 valid signatures. The business submitted petitions with 166 signatures, but election board employees determined that only 130 of the signatures were valid.
That leaves 34 liquor options on the Mahoning County ballot, 25 of them in Boardman Township and the city of Canfield.
Election officials say this is the most liquor options to appear on a Mahoning County ballot in several years, and may be the most options to ever be on the county ballot.
"It's kind of interesting that there's more local options than school issues; that's unusual," said Clarence Smith, an elections board member and chairman of the county's Republican Party.
The elections board today certified the 34 other liquor options as well as the 32 tax issues and questions, which include eight school levies and bond issues, submitted for the November general election.