Absentee voters defeat Lakeview schools levy

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

CORTLAND

Absentee voters went overwhelmingly against the Lakeview Local School District levy Tuesday night, turning what looked like approval of the district’s 3.75-mill, five-year additional school levy into a three-vote defeat.

Superintendent Robert Wilson hopes Lakeview will have better luck with what are called provisional voters.

At press time Tuesday night, with all 18 precincts in the school district reporting, it looked like the levy would be one of the few issues on the ballot in which voters approved new taxes, with the measure leading 1,631 to 1,575 votes.

But at 1:05 a.m., the Trumbull County Board of Elections released complete but unofficial results that contained an additional 341 absentee ballots, which are cast by voters during the weeks leading up to the election.

Of those 341 votes, 200 of were against the levy, and 141 were for it.

There are still votes to be counted, however. Provisional ballots will not be counted for several weeks.

The elections board is not allowed by law to begin counting the provisional ballots until May 15. The board most likely will begin counting them May 17, said Kelly Pallante, elections board director.

Provisional ballots are cast by people who move into a voting district no more than 30 days before an election, those who change their name (typically through marriage) without notifying the board of elections or fail to provide a valid form of identification when they go to the polls.

Pallante said 20 provisional votes were cast in the Lakeview election, meaning there are enough votes still left to change the result of the election.

Wilson said the levy would raise $1,050,000 annually and would be used to restore busing for high school students, increase the number of stops Lake- view buses would make along their routes, eliminate all student fees, cut pay-to-participate fees in half, purchase textbooks, increase technology capabilities and offset the $125,000 loss in state school funding for the 2010-11 school year.