Four referred to prosecutor's office

The board declined a budget cut aimed at trimming precincts.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Elections has completed its probe of irregularities on petitions filed by Randy Walter, former independent candidate for the 17th District Congressional seat.
The board referred names of four people to the county prosecutor's office Tuesday for possible criminal prosecution. These people had signed that they'd circulated the petitions: Grace Hreno of Niles, Walter's mother-in-law; Billie Mauritz of Boardman; Georgene Mummey of Poland; and Patrick Vannetti of Howland.
Mummey and Vannetti are employed by Walter.
Kelly Pallante, elections board director, said some of the signatures on the petitions did not match the signatures on elections records.
James Saker, an assistant county prosecutor assigned to represent the elections board, said the board is satisfied that no other petition circulators are involved in irregularities. He noted, however, names of other circulators may surface as the prosecutor's own investigation continues.
Falsifying petitions, Saker said, carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. He said county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins "has taken this very seriously."
The irregularities became public June 9 and Walter withdrew from the congressional race two weeks later.
In other business, the board approved a 2007 budget of nearly $1.5 million for 2007, although Republican board member Ronald Knight attempted to cut it by nearly $160,000 by proposing to reduce the number of precincts.
The budget now goes to the county commissioners for consideration.
Streamlining elections
Knight wants to reduce the number of election precincts from the current 274 to 135. He said the county has far too many precincts for the number of active voters. In addition to saving money, it would be easier to recruit people to work the polls, he said.
Knight said the reduction in precincts would reduce cost, and that is "good public policy."
"The public expects us to cut back where possible," he added.
The other Republican board member, Craig Bonar, agreed with Knight, but pointed out the elections board's staff isn't capable of reducing precincts until next year.
The two Democrat members, Sherron Platt and Barbara Katzenberger, argued that the budget can't be trimmed now because it's based on current activities.
Also during the meeting, the board agreed not to take up until after the November election requests by the Champion and Lakeview school districts to eliminate polling places in their buildings.
Pallante explained that changing poll locations now would be too confusing to voters.
"I'm sorry that democracy is such an inconvenience to them," commented Rokey Suleman, board deputy director.
Champion has eight precincts in its buildings; Lakeview, four.
Pallante cited security and added traffic at the schools as reasons the districts don't want the polls in their buildings.
Katzenberger said schools should make the election part of the learning experience.
yovich@vindy.com