43
Petitions for Youngstown charter-amendment proposal have enough valid signatures
YOUNGSTOWN
Though it didn’t matter how many valid signatures were on petitions for an issue to cut the number of wards in the city to get it on the ballot, more than enough were collected.
City council approved legislation Tuesday that automatically put the proposed charter amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot to reduce the city’s seven wards to five regardless of the number of signatures.
But Mayor John A. McNally asked the Mahoning County Board of Elections to count the signatures on petitions collected by a group for the charter amendment. He said, “It shows it’s what voters want.”
The group that organized the effort, now called Committee for Responsible Redistricting, collected 1,647 signatures with 1,387 of them deemed valid Friday by the board of elections. The group needed at least 1,216 signatures on petitions to get the proposal on the ballot.
Of all the signatures collected, 84.2 percent were valid — which elections officials noted is higher than normal.
For example, the anti-fracking charter amendment that will be on the Nov. 4 ballot for the fourth-consecutive time had 70.3 percent of its signatures deemed valid.
“We were careful and very diligent,” said Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, a member of the committee. “This is something our constituents asked us to do. We knew the people signing. They’re our neighbors.”
Councilman Paul Drennen, D-5th, also a committee member, said, “This bodes well for the issue to be passed. It shows we have support. Eighty-four percent is very high, and we got it in a short period of time,” primarily during a two-week period.
The board of elections will meet at 8 a.m. Wednesday to take a vote to formally put the charter-amendment proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.
If approved by voters, council would eliminate two of its seats. It would take effect with the 2015 election.
Under the proposal, council would have 30 days after the certification of the Nov. 4 ballot to redistrict from seven to five wards. If council failed to do so in that time, the mayor would have 14 days to redistrict.