Board of elections won’t remove two Youngstown mayoral candidates


July 18, 2013 at 11:30a.m.

Board of elections won’t remove two Youngstown mayoral candidates

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Board of Elections rejected requests today to remove two independent candidates for Youngstown mayor from the November ballot.

A formal protest was filed by Cecil Monroe against retired Police Chief Jimmy Hughes and DeMaine Kitchen, the mayor’s chief of staff/secretary.

Monroe contended the two aren’t eligible to run as independents because of their history as Democrats.

The four-member board disagreed, unanimously voting to reject Monroe’s protest against Hughes, and voted 3-1 to reject the protest against Kitchen.

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras, the elections board’s vice chairman, was the lone vote to remove Kitchen from the ballot.

For the complete story, read Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com