Sloppy work can’t be ignored

Sloppy work can’t be ignored

There is more than enough blame to go around for the farce that developed over the certification of former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. as an independent congressional candidate on the November ballot.

Traficant’s petition circulators should have known that many people would sign a petition for their charismatic candidate regardless of where they lived or whether they were registered voters. But they didn’t, and when nearly one in three signatures was ruled invalid, Traficant fell short of the number needed.

But that was the least of the errors, and it was committed by unpaid volunteers.

Some employees of the boards of election in the 17th Congressional District were guilty of misfeasance in:

Incorrectly determining the number of signatures needed by Traficant to qualify.

Carelessly disqualifying some of the signatures.

The result was weeks of haggling and, ultimately, the approval of a handful of signatures to put Traficant over the top. It was a sad scene that left at least one observer with the impression that Mahoning County board members were approving some signatures just to put the controversy behind them.

Perfectly predictable

Every member of an elections board involved and every employee should have known going in that they had no margin for error in certifying the candidacy of a man who has attained cult status among the faithful. The off-again, on-again farce reflected poorly on the institutions involved, fed the Traficant-as-victim mystique and provided red meat for the conspiracy theorists.

Jennifer Brunner take note: When boards of election cannot meet minimal standards of professionalism, the secretary of state must act. In this case the boards cannot impartially investigate the failures of the supervisors they appoint and the employees they pay.