MAHONING COUNTY Elections officials disqualify 454 ballots

The outcome of a liquor option in Youngstown's 4th Ward was changed.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Board of Elections will certify its 2004 election results Wednesday minus 454 provisional ballots that were thrown out for various reasons Monday.
Michael Sciortino, elections director, said 2,351 provisional ballots were counted out of the 2,805 that were cast on Election Day, Nov. 2.
Reasons
Sciortino said the majority of the provisional ballots thrown out were from people who were not registered to vote. About 150 ballots were nullified because people voted in the wrong precinct.
In addition, some people were registered in other states and, therefore, could not vote in Ohio. Finally, some people did not sign their ballot slips and were disqualified.
The additional ballots counted Monday changed only one measure in Mahoning County. The beer, wine and mixed liquor option in Youngstown's 4th Ward, Precinct J, passed by a vote of 163-158. The liquor option was tied 156-156 on election night.
One of the closest contests was Campbell Charter Amendment 1, which narrowly won by nine votes on election day. The new unofficial tallies show the amendment passed by 23 votes. The amendment gives Campbell City Council the authority to keep its full-time fire department, participate in a fire district or a mutual aid agreement, or purchase services from another entity.
The provisional ballots increased the margin of defeat for the county's half-percent sales tax to 1,944 votes, according to the latest unofficial returns, compared with 1,689 on election day.
The results, with provisionals, also showed that 68.7 percent of registered voters cast ballots on Nov. 2, with the Kerry-Edwards ticket getting 62.52 percent of the vote for president, compared with 36.66 percent for the Bush-Cheney ticket.