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Trumbull board certifies 2, disqualifies 2 in races
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Former Cortland Councilman John Caparanis was disqualified from running this November for a four-year seat on city council because of a flaw in his election petitions.
Caparanis, who served on council between 1998 and 2009, was one of three candidates to file petitions to run for three available seats.
The Trumbull County Board of Elections certified the petitions of the two other candidates, James W. Edward and incumbent Terry L. Tackett, on Friday.
That means only two candidates will be on the ballot for three seats.
Curt Moll, Cortland mayor, said the city’s charter calls for city council to take applications and appoint someone to fill the third seat.
Moll called the disqualification “disappointing,” but noted that council could appoint Caparanis to the position.
Incumbent council members Frank J. Stocz and Diana D. Sweeney chose not to run for re-election.
Kelly Pallante, elections board director, said the problem with Caparanis’ petitions was that one of the four pages didn’t have Caparanis’ signature on it, which invalidated the signatures on that page and left him short of the number signatures he needed.
The elections board also ruled that Rhonda Williamson Bennett’s petitions did not contain enough valid signatures to allow her to run this November for the board of education of Warren City Schools.
Some of the signatures were invalid because they were printed, not cursive, and others were invalid because the signers were not registered voters.
With Williamson Bennett off the ballot, four people are running for three seats, including incumbent Patricia Limperos.
Incumbents Ed Bolino and Kevin Stringer are not running for re-election.
In addition to Limperos, the ballot will contain the names Rhonda Baldwin-Amorganos, Andre Coleman and Clyde Wilson.
The elections board also rejected a local liquor option for Red Dragon Convenient Mart of Niles because the circulator did not witness the signing of all of the names, requiring certain pages to be ruled invalid.