Ruling keeps Lorenzi off fall ballot

YOUNGSTOWN — The 7th District Court of Appeals has refused to reinstate a Youngstown city council independent candidate kicked off the ballot.

Maggy Lorenzi of East Midlothian Boulevard, who was running for the 6th Ward seat, and seven other independent city council candidates were decertified June 14 by the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

The reason for the decertification was a June 4 advisory opinion by the secretary of state that came after the May 7 independent filing deadline.

The opinion, based on an October 2006 federal court decision, states candidates couldn’t be considered independent if they filed as such and later voted in a partisan primary or serve on a political party’s central or executive committees.

Of the eight decertified city council candidates, seven, including Lorenzi, voted in the May 8 Democratic primary. The other is a Republican central committee member.

Thursday’s court ruling affirmed the elections board’s decision and dismissed Lorenzi’s contention that the board “abused its discretion.”

The ruling states the board “simply followed the mandate of both the election statutes and the secretary of state.”

Brian Kish, Lorenzi’s attorney, said the “real travesty here is that elections officials failed to correctly notify” his client about what she needed to get and stay on the ballot.

Elections boards didn’t find out about the federal case decision from the Ohio secretary of state’s office until about eight months after the ruling.

Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, took over the secretary of state’s job in January from Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell. There were those from Blackwell’s administration who stayed with Brunner and were aware of the federal case and its consequences, Kish said.

Brunner has said the delay in notifying elections boards was because of the confusing transition, which saw Blackwell refuse to cooperate with her and her staff.

The Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals rejected a similar legal filing in September from three candidates running for mayor of Girard and Hubbard and city council in Niles.