MAHONING COUNTY J-M levy will get automatic recount

The recount is expected next week.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There may be some life left in a 2.8-mill tax levy rejected by Jackson-Milton school district residents on election day.
Voters in the school district rejected the five-year tax renewal by an 877-872 margin March 2. But provisional votes opened Tuesday by the Mahoning County Board of Elections moved the ballot initiative's defeat to within one vote, 879-878. The levy was approved 6-2 by the eight provisional voters.
"We're gaining on it," said Warne Palmer, Jackson-Milton superintendent. "Until it's finalized, it's still up in the air, but we have our fingers crossed." The initiative needs a majority vote; if there is a tie, it fails, said Thomas McCabe, Mahoning elections board deputy director.
Automatic recount
The tax renewal, which raises $383,088 annually in operating expenses, will get an automatic recount. Automatic recounts are done for ballot initiatives when the margin is one-half of 1 percent or less of the total votes cast.
The Mahoning elections board will certify the primary ballot vote Friday, and set a date for the Jackson-Milton recount at that meeting, said Michael Sciortino, the board's director. The recount will probably take place next week. The recount would include double-checking the votes cast on the county's electronic voting machines, and having the board's optical scanner review the absentee and provisional ballots, which are on paper.
Provisional ballots are cast by people who move into a voting district 30 days before an election, McCabe said. By state law, county election boards have to hold those ballots 21 days after an election with a presidential primary, such as this one, while its employees verify the voters' address and eligibility, he said.
Partly in Trumbull County
But there's a bit more at play in this than just a recount in Mahoning. A small portion of the Jackson-Milton School District is in Trumbull County.
The ballot initiative passed in Mahoning County 863-841, but was rejected 36-9 in Trumbull on election day.
The Trumbull board was to open its provisional ballots today and certify its results Friday, said Norma Williams, its director. She didn't know how many provisional ballots were from voters in the Jackson-Milton district.
Because the levy failed so overwhelmingly in Trumbull County, Jackson-Milton school officials hope there aren't too many provision ballots to be counted from that county.
The Trumbull board will be required to recount the Jackson-Milton votes because of the automatic recount provision.
If the tax levy fails, the Jackson-Milton Board of Education will probably hold a special election in August, Palmer said. The board gave a first reading last week to holding a special election in August if the levy is officially rejected, he said.
"Hopefully, it won't come to that, but we have to be prepared," Palmer said.
Overall, school tax levies didn't fare well in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties this past primary. Of the 18 school issues on the ballot in the three counties, only four were approved.
"It's close with us every year," Palmer said of tax votes. "There's a lot of anti-tax, anti-government people. Also, we're in tough economic times."
skolnick@vindy.com