Elections board delays action on Youngstown charter amendment

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Board of Elections refused to certify a Youngstown charter-amendment proposal to the ballot because city council submitted two nearly identical documents about the same issue.

Board members said Wednesday that because the city submitted two proposals that both should be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot.

That is unless either city council, which approved legislation last week for a proposed amendment, or the Committee for Responsible Redistricting, which collected enough signatures to get its proposal on the ballot as a citizens initiative, withdraws one of the issues.

After the board declined to take action on the charter amendments and closed the meeting, city Law Director Martin Hume came to the board office to discuss it further with election officials.

Hume told board members that both petitions were forwarded to them “because of concerns about a lack of valid signatures” on the citizens initiative. However, that committee collected 1,387 valid signatures, more than the 1,216 needed to get on the ballot.

“The [state] constitution allows two different ways to get on the ballot and we did both,” Hume said. “But it’s one charter amendment and one issue is what should be on the ballot.”

But board members declined to take action Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the board of elections Wednesday approved two city of Canfield charter-amendment proposals, initiated by citizen petitions.

Read more about the matter in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.