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Outcome of council race is the same
YOUNGSTOWN
A count of provisional and absentee ballots from the May 5 primary election did not change the outcome of the city’s tight 1st Ward Council race.
The Mahoning County Board of Elections had a special meeting Wednesday evening to count the provisional and absentee ballots and to certify the final count of the election.
Julius T. Oliver still beat Mike Write, 286 to 275 in the Democratic primary, and will serve after Annie Gillam steps down. Gillam did not run again because of term limits. A third candidate, Jose A. Rivera, received 84 votes.
The vote tally May 5 was Oliver with 276 and Write with 267. Rivera received 78 votes.
The margin of victory is not small enough to trigger an automatic recount – that is 0.5 percent or less.
The board noted that Write can request a recount if he pays for one. It would cost $75.
He told The Vindicator he did not want to comment on whether he will ask for one.
Oliver said he was not surprised at the outcome.
“I knew I had it from just how the city was talking,” he said.
“I’m eager to get in there, to become a public servant and be the voice of the people,” Oliver added.
Absentee ballots are ballots that come in postmarked before or on the day of the election. By law, they have to be counted.
Provisional ballots are used if a voter’s eligibility is in question on the day of an election, 30 days before an election if a voter changed address, or if a person requested an absentee ballot then goes to a polling location.
There were 24 ballots affecting the 1st Ward race – 18 provisional and six absentees. Thirteen provisional ballots were found on election night, four more were found in the wrong bags, and one was found Wednesday during the final count.
During the meeting, the board also had a public hearing on a plan to eliminate 26 precincts in the county. There were no objections, and the board voted unanimously to accept the plan beginning with the November election.
The county now has 212 precincts, down from 416 it had 15 years ago.
Earlier this year, the board eliminated 32 precincts in Youngstown and three in Struthers in time for their primaries May 5.
Thomas McCabe, elections board deputy director, said the cuts are to save money and improve efficiency.
Absentee voting, he said, has increased considerably since 2005, when people no longer were required to have a reason to use it. So the need for all those polling places had declined.
McCabe also said it is getting harder to find people willing to work at the polls.
Wednesday’s cuts and those in Youngstown and Struthers, he said, will save about $75,000 a year.
The number of precincts to be cut by community are: Austintown, from 40 to 33; Boardman, from 47 to 37; Poland Township, from 16 to 13; Campbell, from 11 to nine; Canfield city, from 10 to eight; Beaver, from eight to seven; and Milton, from three to two.