Elections board approves candidates

The board said goodbye to a longtime member.

By LAUREN POLINSKY

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

LISBON — Columbiana Board of Elections has certified independent candidate petitions for the 2007 general election in November.

Six candidates were approved when the board met Thursday. Two people withdrew their petitions to run as independents, and the board denied a petition from another person.

Independent candidates approved were John Drumm for East Liverpool law director; Casey Christofaris for mayor of Salem; Dave Nestic for 1st Ward councilman in Salem; David Lloyd for mayor of Wellsville; and Patricia Keylor and Lowell Schloneger for Columbiana City Council.

Other business

The board also approved a contract with the Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., for the company to work in a joint effort with the board to “help with anything related to elections.”

This includes fixing and testing voting booths. The board will pay $13,500 to the company in exchange for 10 days of work.

ES&S already have begun work despite the delay in approval of the contract. This is the first year the board has had to foot the bill for a service like this, which was previously covered under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Resignation

The meeting also marked the final session for member Dennis Johnson, who announced he was stepping down.

He has been sitting on the board for more than 15 years or as he put it, “It has been so long I can’t remember the exact number of years.”

He said his decision to resign came from his desire to spend more time with his family.

There will be a meeting of the Democratic Party’s executive committee tonight at the party headquarters for nominations to replace Johnson. The nomination must be sent to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner within the next 15 days, board officials said.