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Elections board again trips
On the side
Chamber luncheon: Because of the recent death of his father, Ohio Speaker of the House William Batchelder won’t be the guest speaker at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s annual legislative luncheon at 11:30 a.m. today at the Maronite Center on South Meridian Road in Youngstown.
Replacing the speaker is state Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Republican from Wayne County who serves as chairman of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee.
All members of the Mahoning Valley’s legislative delegation from the Ohio General Assembly have been invited to the event, where they will recognized.
Chamber breakfast: Freshman U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, is the featured speaker at a Regional Chamber breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at Holiday Inn on South Avenue in Boardman.
Johnson’s 12-county district includes all of Columbiana County and about half of Mahoning County.
The cost for the breakfast is $20. Reservations are required by calling Jennifer Mascardine at 330-744-2131, extension 12, or by email at jennifer@regionalchamber.com.
The Mahoning County Board of Elections is dealing with another issue that questions its credibility.
The board took immediate action when it learned of the problem involving absentee ballots improperly submitted and accepted in last week’s primary. But there are skeptics, including this newspaper, calling for an independent investigation into the matter in a Tuesday editorial.
The board and the sheriff’s department are investigating the issue separately.
The board meets Monday. If the sheriff’s report is done, the board will give that and information it’s gathering to the county prosecutor and the Ohio secretary of state shortly.
The issue involves at least 35 absentee ballots that may have been illegally submitted to the board, said Thomas McCabe, the board’s director.
McCabe won’t disclose the names of those being investigated.
But sources confirm that Danny Morgan, who lost the May 3 Democratic primary for a Struthers council-at-large seat, is the candidate who improperly turned in absentee ballots.
Those sources also said Danielle O’Neill, a clerk at the board, improperly accepted the ballots, and other employees may have taken absentee votes from Morgan.
There are restrictions as to who can submit absentee ballots. Morgan isn’t allowed under state law to turn them in, except for himself or an immediate family member, and O’Neill and possibly others aren’t allowed to accept them.
Morgan finished last, fourth among candidates running for three at-large seats.
When the absentees were counted, Morgan was leading all candidates — the other three are incumbents — with 371 absentee votes.
Michael S. Patrick had 296 absentee votes, Ronald Mathews had 272, and Daniel R. Yemma had 203.
That would lead almost anyone to believe that we are talking about more than 35 or so absentee votes improperly submitted by Morgan.
When the final results came in, including absentees, Patrick had 1,165 total votes, Mathews had 1,149, Yemma had 1,089, and Morgan had 990.
If you take away the absentees, Morgan had only 619 votes. That’s only a little more than half of Patrick’s total.
While Anthony R. Protopapa Jr., a 1st Ward candidate, isn’t accused of being involved in improperly submitting absentee ballots, he was way ahead in the absentee voting.
It isn’t known how many of Morgan’s votes came from the 1st Ward — actually it will never be known how many he turned in from anywhere.
But when the absentees were counted, Protopapa had 80 votes to incumbent Tony Fire’s 39. The final results had Fire with 197 votes to 173 for Protopapa. Get rid of the absentees and Protopapa only had 93 votes.
Elections officials contacted about 30 of the voters of questionable absentees. They all said they filled out their own ballots and sealed them.
It appears to be a mistake, but one that shouldn’t be dismissed.
Also to be considered are past problems at the board. In 2009, board employees failed to follow an internal office policy to send ballot language to those with tax issues on the ballot, and gave two independent candidates in Youngstown the wrong number of signatures needed on their nominating petitions.