Anti-SB 5 signees in Valley validated

By David Skolnick | July 20, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

area elections boards OK 85% of signatures

YOUNGSTOWN

Valid signatures on petitions to repeal Senate Bill 5 in the Mahoning Valley greatly outpaced the rest of the state.

A spokeswoman with We Are Ohio, the group leading the effort to repeal the bill that restricts collective bargaining for public employees, said the statewide average of valid signatures on petitions was 68 percent.

The percentages in the Valley were considerably higher.

In Mahoning County, 31,251 of the 36,650 signatures, 85.3 percent, were ruled valid by the county’s board of elections.

In Trumbull County, 24,423 of the 27,807 signatures collected there, 87.8 percent, were validated by the board of elections.

In Columbiana County, 6,793 of the 8,179 signatures, 83.1 percent, were ruled valid by the board of elections.

“Those three counties were well above average,” said Melissa Fazekas, a We Are Ohio spokeswoman.

Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras, a vocal proponent of repealing the bill, said the high percentages are because “people in this part of the state are charged up about this issue. I’m very proud of those who collected signatures. They made sure the signatures were good.”

County boards of elections throughout Ohio had to submit the number of valid signatures on the SB 5 repeal petitions by Monday.

Those opposed to SB 5 turned in petitions with 1,298,301 signatures. With some counties numbers not yet counted as of Tuesday evening, close to 900,000 signatures were validated.

To get on the Nov. 8 ballot, 231,149 valid signatures were needed.