43
Commissioners defy state official’s directive
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners voted unanimously to open Oakhill Renaissance Place for weekend early voting in defiance of the ban on weekend voting at boards of elections imposed by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.
On Tuesday, the commissioners adopted a resolution to open Oakhill, where the county board of elections is housed, on the first three weekends in October, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.
The resolution, designed to facilitate in-person early voting on the October weekends at the elections board, 345 Oak Hill Ave., said the board of elections has sufficient funds to pay for the extra hours of operation.
SDLqVoting needs to be made accessible to the residents of Mahoning County,” including those employed out of town during the week, who return home on weekends, said Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.
The resolution by the commissioners, all Democrats, sets the stage for a political showdown between them and Husted, who is a Republican.
The commissioners’ resolution came the day after the county elections board voted 3-1, with county Democratic Party Chairman David Betras dissenting, to adhere to Husted’s directive for uniform early-voting hours statewide.
The directive allows for evening, but not weekend, in-person early voting. Early voting also can be accomplished by mail.
Husted made his decision after county elections officials told him it would be easier and cheaper for them to add evening hours than to be open on weekends, said Husted’s press secretary, Matt McClellan.
The county elections board, not the board of county commissioners, administers elections; and the board of elections does so under the direction of Husted, McClellan said.
“There will be no early voting outside of the hours that were established in the directive,” from Husted, McClellan said.
Asked whether Husted would invalidate any weekend in-person ballots cast at the elections board, McClellan said: “I think there would be action prior to any votes’ being cast” in person on weekends. McClellan noted Husted’s suspension of two Montgomery County Board of Elections members who endorsed weekend voting.
McClellan said he was not aware of any other Ohio counties having taken the action Mahoning commissioners took Tuesday.
In other action, the commissioners voted 2-1 to raise the county’s hotel and motel bed tax from 3 percent to 5 percent, effective Oct. 1, despite a chorus of protest from the local lodging industry, which said the move would cause the industry to lose business to areas with lower tax rates.
Voting in favor of the tax increase were John A. McNally IV, chairman of the commissioners, and Righetti. Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti dissented.
“At least put it on the ballot, and let the voters vote on it,” urged Michal Naffah, owner of the Hampton Inn and Suites in Canfield, who opposed the increase.
Righetti said she supported the tax increase because she believes the extra money is needed for the Western Reserve Port Authority, which oversees operation of Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna and also looks for economic- development opportunities.
“We have to stop looking at the politics of this. We have to look at the future of Mahoning County” and the Mahoning Valley region, she said.
The commissioners also changed the distribution formula from one-third to the county convention and visitors’ bureau and two-thirds to the port authority under the 3 percent bed tax to 30 percent to CVB and 70 percent to the authority under the 5 percent tax.
Don Crane, president of the Western Reserve Building Trades Council, urged the commissioners to increase the tax, saying it will provide additional employment to construction workers making much-needed improvements at the airport.
“As building-trades men and women work, the Valley flourishes,” Crane said.