St. Christine's hub of Youngstown voting today with 5 candidates

YOUNGSTOWN

All five candidates in the 5th Ward City Council race greeted voters early this morning at St. Christine Parish Center, the busiest of three polling places serving that ward’s voters.

The city features contested Democratic primary races for City Council in all seven of its wards, with the 5th ward race being the most crowded.

With the council races being the only ones on the Youngstown ballot, 5th ward candidates Lauren McNally, Cynthia McWilson, Michael Rapovy, Kevin Salata and Michael Santisi greeted voters at St. Christine, which is the polling place for five precincts.

Don Komara, a St. Christine pollworker and retired city police captain, characterized voter turnout as “slow,” noting that only five voters were present when the polls opened at 6:30 a.m.

With a low turnout, election officials chose the right time to launch the new electronic pollbook voter check-in technology and get pollworkers and voters accustomed to it, Komara said.

One of the early St. Christine voters was Mayor John McNally, whose name was not on the ballot.

Saying city council races are important to local residents, McNally urged voters to show up and cast their ballots before the polls close at 7:30 p.m. today.

“As citizens, we have the obligation to come out and elect the best people for these jobs,” McNally said.

“They’re your immediate, most direct contact with city services,” including police, fire, pothole patching, street paving, snow plowing and blight remediation, he said of city council members.