Recounts, certification of election run smoothly

Both candidates in a controversial Warren race talked about legal action.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Hand-counting of Trumbull County voters' paper ballots turned out to be a much less difficult process than some feared.
A Republican and a Democrat on the elections board looked at between 200 and 300 paper ballots over the past couple of days -- and agreed on every one of them.
The result is that the elections board was able to meet Thursday and certify results of the Nov. 8 election. That allows the board to move on to tallying automatic recounts Dec. 13 and 14 in six races, including the Warren 3rd Ward race between Andy Barkley and George Brown, which Barkley is winning by two votes.
Changes not expected
Elections officials said those recounts rarely produce a change in the vote totals especially in a year like this, when all of the paper ballots have been checked an additional time, some by hand.
"I don't think there should be any vote changes in any of the recounts," said Republican Party Chairman Craig Bonar, the GOP member who hand counted ballots along with Sherron L. Platt, a Democrat member of the board of elections.
He said by already hand counting and scrutinizing all of the paper ballots, the possibility of changes coming from the recount is more limited than usual.
That hand-counting of paper ballots did not change the outcome in any races. It did change the vote totals in one of the six races that were close enough for automatic recounts, but only by one vote. In the Maplewood School District race, David M. Drawl now leads Justin D. Pykare for the third seat 972 to 963 -- a difference of nine votes instead of eight.
Those paper ballots were recounted after Bonar asked for the recount at a meeting Nov. 28 and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell agreed after the local elections board split 2-2 on whether to recount them.
Legal challenges
The biggest challenge now for this election, officials say, is whether legal challenges will come after the final recounts are completed. Atty. David Engler came to the meeting representing Barkley.
John Brown, father of candidate George Brown, said he is advising his son to file legal action after the automatic recount is done over the way the election was handled. He asked to be able to inspect and copy all of the provisional ballots in the Ward 3 race but was told he will have to wait until after the automatic recounts are completed.
Engler asked the board for information about a demonstration of the new touch-screen voting equipment that was given at the Christ Episcopal Church in Warren Oct. 29.
Rokie Suleman III, chief deputy director of the board, said after the meeting that Bonar "instructed us" to hold the demonstration, so he obliged. But when Barkley asked him whether a demonstration could be held at the Greater Warren Federal Credit Union, where Barkley works, he had to tell him no.
Engler said the demonstration at Christ Episcopal, which is in the 3rd Ward, was a "private event" organized to favor George Brown because it was not advertised to the general public and Barkley was not invited. George Brown said it was advertised in a county Republican Party newsletter.
Engler said the problem with the demonstration was that it involved a public employee being instructed to use a voting machine, which is public property, for the benefit of one political party.
The elections board set a Jan. 3 hearing date to hear testimony on the residency of Joseph D. Pasquerilla, who received the highest number of votes in the race for three seats on the Brookfield Board of Education. The complaint, by Hellen Hegedus, says Pasquerilla's legal residence for election purposes is in Hubbard Township, not Brookfield.
runyan@vindy.com