Ballots probe clears board

By David Skolnick | June 9, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Sheriff’s office OKs absentee submissions

YOUNGSTOWN

An investigation by the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department into the board of elections’ accepting absentee ballots in a way that potentially could have been illegal found no wrongdoing.

County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said the sheriff’s investigation found “no violation of the law.”

The issue in question was Danny Morgan, a failed Struthers council-at-large candidate in last month’s primary, submitting at least 35 absentee ballots to the elections board. Danielle O’Neill, a board clerk, accepted the ballots from Morgan.

Ohio law restricts who can submit absentee ballots to the person who filled them out and certain relatives.

Elections officials spoke to most Struthers voters who had absentee ballots submitted at the board office. All told elections officials that they filled out the ballots themselves and sealed them, said Thomas McCabe, the board’s director.

O’Neill was cleared last month of any potential wrongdoing by the Ohio secretary of state’s office. The board doesn’t have the authority to refuse absentee ballots from anyone, wrote Gretchen A. Quinn, the office’s elections counsel, in an email to county elections officials.

Gains questioned why the board of elections would “waste the resources and time of the sheriff’s department” on this investigation rather than handle it themselves.

Because the matter involved election employees, McCabe said: “We thought it was important to have outside eyes look at it. I’m not a fan of internal investigations with allegations that might have included someone at the board. Also, people tend to answer quicker to the sheriff’s department than the board of elections.”

McCabe said he is “confident the sheriff’s department did a very thorough job.”

Sheriff Randall Wellington couldn’t be reached Wednesday by The Vindicator to comment on the investigation.