Vote count favors Wright for judge

Staff report

WILLOUGHBY

Atty. Thomas R. Wright of Brookfield, a Democrat, will be a judge on Ohio’s 11th District Court of Appeals after a recount of votes cast in the five counties the court serves.

Wright gained one vote in Lake County and one in Geauga County during recounts conducted this week. His Republican opponent, Eugene A. Lucci, lost one vote in Portage County.

The appellate court reviews decisions from common pleas and lower courts in Trumbull, Lake, Portage, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.

The final vote count is 106,871 votes for Wright and 105,875 for Lucci — a difference of 996 votes, said a spokesman for the Lake County Board of Elections, where the official results were compiled.

The elections boards in the five counties were required to recount the votes cast in the November general election because the outcome was closer than one-half of one percent.

The Lake County Board of Elections will certify the results today. The county has the highest population in the 11th District.

The recount in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties produced no change in the totals.

The race pitted a Youngstown native, Lucci, who has served as a Lake County Common Pleas Court judge since 2001, and Wright, who is a private-practice attorney who has lived in Trumbull County the last 14 years.

Wright serves as acting judge for Trumbull County’s Eastern District Court in Brookfield and also was a clerk under Judge Donald R. Ford, a former member of the 11th District Court of Appeals. He begins his six-year term Feb. 9.