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Elections clerk did not violate state law
YOUNGSTOWN
A Mahoning County Board of Elections clerk didn’t violate state law when accepting absentee ballots that may have been illegally submitted, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.
The board doesn’t have the authority to refuse absentee ballots from anyone, the office’s elections counsel wrote in an email to the board.
Sources say Danielle O’Neill is the clerk who took absentee ballots from Danny Morgan, who lost the May 3 Democratic primary race for a Struthers council-at-large seat.
Morgan’s submittal of the absentee ballots remains under investigation by the county sheriff’s department.
“It remains the law in Ohio that a board of elections is without authority to refuse to accept an absentee ballot that is returned to it by an ineligible person,” wrote Gretchen A. Quinn, the secretary of state’s elections counsel to county elections officials.
“Rather, the board of elections accepts the absentee ballot, investigates the circumstances of the ballot’s return, and reports the findings of its investigation to the county prosecutor [law enforcement officer] and the secretary of state [state’s chief elections officer],” she added.
At Monday’s board meeting, Mark Munroe, its vice chairman and county Republican chairman, said: “It’s been determined the clerk who took the petitions acted properly. She had to accept the absentee ballots or risk disenfranchising voters.”
Ohio restricts who can submit absentee ballots to the person who filled it out, and certain relatives.
There are signs in the elections office that read: “Do not accept any absentee ballot envelopes that cannot be accounted for in this manner.”
The issue involves at least 35 absentee ballots that may have been submitted illegally, said Thomas McCabe, board director.
About 100 Struthers voters who had their absentee ballots sent to the board’s office have been contacted asking if they actually voted and if they sealed their ballot.
All have said they did just that, McCabe said.
The sheriff’s department should finish its investigation either later this week or next week, McCabe said.
If the sheriff’s department determines there was criminal activity, the matter goes to the prosecutor’s office.
Morgan had a large lead when absentee ballots were cast, but fared so poorly among those who voted at the polls that he finished in last place.
Also Monday, the board certified the results of the May 3 election.
The closest race was the Western Reserve Fire District’s 1-mill additional levy winning by 22 votes.
The ballot issue was up 2,175 to 2,159 on election night.
With provisional ballots counted, the issue passed 2,194 to 2,172; a win by just 0.538 of a percent.
There are automatic recounts for races determined by 0.5 of a percent or less.
One more no vote or one less yes vote would have caused the fire levy, that will raise $357,839 annually, to be subject to a recount.