Betras’ challenger wants election ‘clean’

It’s getting messy in the days leading to Wednesday’s Mahoning County Democratic Party precinct committee meeting to elect party officers.

Georgiann DeCenzo, the newly elected state central committeewoman who is challenging David Betras for leadership of the party, is accusing the incumbent chairman of having his supporters oversee the election.

“I want people without a vested interest in the outcome handling the election,” she said. “He needs to make sure the election process is very clean.”

Democratic employees of the county board of elections will handle the party election.

DeCenzo of Boardman said today that the election should be run by an accounting firm or attorneys “who are good solid Democrats” in order to “avoid any appearance of impropriety.”

Betras of Boardman said DeCenzo and her supporters can stand next to the ballot boxes when the votes are counted.

“There’s no rigging of the election,” Betras said. “The people who run elections at the county level aren’t going to rig the election. This is ridiculous.”

For the complete story, read Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com