Candidate's petitions checked line by line

Officials are investigating his associates but found 'no wrongdoing' by Walter.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Election officials in Mahoning County, where congressional candidate Randy Walter obtained most signatures on his nominating petitions, are reviewing every name on the documents.
Mahoning elections officials want to make sure the signatures are legitimate, Thomas McCabe, the county's elections board director, said Tuesday.
This comes a day after the Trumbull County elections board asked its county prosecutor to investigate irregularities on nominating petitions circulated by two officials with Walter's real estate development company on his behalf.
"At this point we have no indication of any wrongdoing on [Walter's] part," said Kelly Pallante, Trumbull elections board director.
Trumbull election employees are also reviewing Walter's petitions with a focus on those who circulated petitions for him, Pallante said.
Pallante asked county elections board officials in Mahoning, Portage and Summit counties, which along with Trumbull make up the 17th District, to provide her with copies of the voter registration forms of the 150 or so people who circulated Walter's petitions.
"We want to verify their signatures and make sure everything is in order," Pallante said. "It will be an interesting couple of weeks."
Disqualified signatures
Walter, of Canfield, filed nominating petitions with 3,460 signatures on May 1 to run as an independent candidate in the 17th Congressional District. He needs 1,844 valid signatures to get on the November general election ballot.
Reviews by election employees in the four counties led to the disqualification of 1,025 of the signatures, or about 30 percent of those who signed Walter's petitions.
The disqualifications were for a variety of reasons, including wrong addresses, wrong counties, printed names and signatures from people who aren't residents of the congressional district or aren't registered to vote.
That leaves Walter, for now, with 2,435 signatures, almost 600 more than he needs to get on the ballot.
Of Walter's 3,460 signatures, 1,936 were from Mahoning, and 1,446 came from Trumbull. After a review, Walter had 1,356 valid signatures from Mahoning and 1,028 from Trumbull.
The Trumbull board sought the investigation of Georgene Mummey of Poland and Patrick Vannetti of Howland, who work for Walter's development company, after they declined to answer questions about irregularities with the petitions they circulated.
Some signatures on the petitions filed by Mummey and Vannetti don't match the signatures on record at the elections boards in Mahoning and Trumbull, officials there say. Four people whose signatures are on a petition circulated by Mummey said they didn't sign their names.
Nominating petitions state that "whoever commits election falsification is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree."
Walter has said he doesn't condone election fraud, and if it occurs, he regrets it but isn't responsible.
The Trumbull board will meet July 11 to consider certifying Walter's petitions.
The upcoming contest
If Walter gets on the ballot, he would face U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Niles Democrat seeking his third two-year term, and Republican Don Manning of Cortland, who got on the ballot as a write-in candidate.
Craig Bonar, the Trumbull County Republican Party chairman and an elections board member, wants to see Ryan defeated but said it's "a long, long shot ... I hardly think it's possible to beat Ryan in this district."
Manning has unsuccessfully run for Trumbull County commissioner and clerk of courts in previous years. Walter lost an independent bid for the 17th District seat in 2000, withdrew from the 2002 Democratic primary for the post, and failed to get on the 2004 ballot for the position because he didn't have enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.
skolnick@vindy.com