Board removes eight from ballot

By David Skolnick | June 15, 2007 at 12:00a.m.

The state advisory that disqualified the candidates was issued last week.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Not only are eight independent candidates for Youngstown City Council seats no longer on the ballot, they can’t even run as write-ins, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.

A recent secretary of state advisory opinion left the Mahoning County Board of Elections with no choice but to disqualify the eight, said Thomas McCabe, the board’s director. They can’t run as write-ins on the November general election ballot either, said Brian Green, elections counsel for the secretary of state.

The advisory opinion that led to Thursday’s disqualification of eight council candidates states those who run as independents and then vote in a party primary election can no longer be considered independents. The opinion also states candidates aren’t independents if they serve on a political party’s central or executive committees when they file as independents.

Seven of the candidates voted in the Democratic primary May 8, one day after the filing deadline for independents. Moses H. Mahdee of the 5th Ward also serves as a Democratic central committee member. Tyrone Peakes of 5th Ward didn’t vote in the primary, but serves as a Republican central committee member.

The opinion is based on a September 2006 federal appeals court decision that interprets state law’s definition of an independent candidate. It wasn’t until last week — about a month after the independent candidate filing deadline — that the secretary of state’s office issued the advisory opinion.

“It’s unfortunate when someone wants to run for office, and we can’t let them,” said Mark Munroe, the elections board’s vice chairman. “It is disappointing, and we’re certainly not happy.”

Common practice

Before the court decision, the long-standing practice in Ohio was to let candidates run as independents regardless of political affiliation.

“We’re getting penalized for something that’s been happening in Ohio for years,” said Maggy Lorenzi, who was an independent candidate for the 6th Ward. Lorenzi was the only candidate among the eight disqualified who attended Thursday’s elections board meeting.

“You’re changing past practices,” she told the board. “I’m sick and tired of the people being responsible for following the law, but there’s no consequences, none, for government when it doesn’t follow the law. It took a federal court to tell the state of Ohio to follow its law.”

Lorenzi said she plans to run as a write-in candidate. But Green said state law forbids those who file declarations of candidacy or submit nominating petitions for partisan state, county and municipal positions to then run for that same office as a write-in if they are disqualified. The law took effect Dec. 23, 2003, and was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court in an Oct. 25, 2005, decision, after a legal challenge.

The secretary of state’s office has told Mahoning elections officials they can’t accept write-in petitions from disqualified candidates, McCabe said.