Low turnout expected in the Valley for Tuesday’s primary election

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Turnout for Tuesday’s primary is expected to be very low, but election officials in Mahoning and Trumbull counties don’t expect it to be as bad as it was in 2009, the last odd-year election.

Thomas McCabe, director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, expects turnout in his county to be 22 percent to 25 percent for this primary.

“It’s very, very bad,” added Joyce Kale Pesta, the elections board’s deputy director. “If it rains, God help us all.”

But 22 percent to 25 percent is optimistic compared to May 2009, when turnout was 10.8 percent, and more than the 19-percent turnout in May 2007.

Turnout should be decent in Canfield and Poland, where new school levies are on the ballot, McCabe said.

“These school levies tend to bring people out and traditionally, Canfield and Poland always have good turnout,” he said.

Fewer than 2,500 people voted early in Mahoning County with many of them Struthers residents. There are Democratic primaries for council seats in that city.

Only 92 of the county’s 273 voting precincts will be open Tuesday. There are no candidates or issues on the ballot in the other precincts.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.