Elections board: Layshock won’t be a write-in on November ballot

STAFF report

WARREN — The Trumbull County Board of Elections has ruled that Pat Layshock will not be a write-in candidate for Newton Falls mayor in the Nov. 3 general election.

Kelly Pallante, elections board director, said she accepted Layshock’s request to be a write-in candidate on the filing deadline, Sept. 2, but only because she had not received the legal opinion of Rick Schwartz, Newton Falls law director, on whether Layshock’s candidacy was legal.

Schwartz wrote a letter to the elections board dated Sept. 3 saying Layshock’s candidacy was not legal because the city’s charter requires that a primary election occur before a race for mayor can take place. No primary for mayor took place in the spring.

The elections board voted this week to reject Layshock’s candidacy.

Layshock filed as a write-in for mayor because legal action he filed in the 11th District Court of Appeals in Warren, asking to be restored as Newton Falls mayor, is pending. If the court rules against him, Layshock wanted the chance to be on the ballot in November, he said.

Layshock resigned as mayor July 6 and rescinded the resignation July 8, but Newton Falls City Council accepted the resignation anyway, and Thomas Moorhead, as council president, assumed the position of mayor.

Schwartz is representing the city in Layshock’s legal action against the city.