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Struthers votes flip mayor's seat to Stocker; final check Nov. 20
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s all but official.
Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker appears to have won his third term as the city’s top elected official.
Based on the results of Saturday’s count of 147 write-in votes from two precincts in the city’s 3rd Ward, Stocker received all of the 145 votes determined valid by the Mahoning County Board of Elections to defeat Danny Thomas Jr.
On election night, the count showed Thomas winning by 72 votes. Now it appears Stocker has won by 73 votes.
“That’s why election night totals are called unofficial,” said Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Board of Elections chairman.
Though it appears as though Stocker has won, there is one more step to be taken at 5 p.m. Friday, when the board of elections meets to certify the results, Munroe said.
In addition to the write-in votes counted Saturday, the board will count any late-arriving absentee ballots postmarked on or before election day, military and overseas ballots, and review provisional ballots cast to see if they are valid, Munroe said.
Stocker said he is “really proud that his supporters had enough faith in me to come to the polls and cast write-in ballots.”
“It looks good for me. Danny had 72 more than me on election night ... now I have 73 more than him,” Stocker said.
What Stocker did, to win as a write-in candidate, was really remarkable, Munroe said.
“This has been 10 days of hell for me and my family and my opponent,” Stocker said.
“It was a close race. I was hoping to do well, but to be able to win as a write-in candidate, it says something. I look forward to working with council and putting forth my four-year plan to continue moving the city forward,” he said.
The result was “pretty much what we anticipated,” said Thomas, who said he would stay involved in politics, but said he doubted he would be a candidate again.
“We gave it our best. I had a good group of volunteers. I appreciate the people who supported me, and the support of my family,” said Thomas, who still believes the board of elections owes both candidates apologies.
Thomas is still miffed by the board of election’s snafu.
“If they had done this right on election night, Terry would have been able to go and celebrate. It would have been his night,” Thomas said.
Munroe described the process leading up to Saturday’s count:
At each of the polling places on Election Day, voters get a paper ballot, and if there is a write-in candidate they write the name on a line and blacken an oval. When they have finished voting, they take the ballot to a scanner which reads the ballot and drops it into the box.
The board of elections, as did the Stocker camp, the next day realized the discrepancy between the number of write-in votes that the board reported election night and the total number of write-in votes indicated by the scanners at various polling places in Struthers.
“We just didn’t know the candidates’ names written on the ballots,” Munroe said.
The box was secured with a tamper-proof seal at the polling place and delivered to the board of elections. At the point, instead of being opened and the votes counted, it was put into the vault, he said.
The box remained sealed until Saturday, when three board of election employees, in the presence of witnesses, including Stocker and Thomas, examined each of 147 ballots, 145 of which had Stocker’s name.
Despite it looking certain that Stocker is the winner, he won’t be declared so until Friday at 5 p.m. when the board meets to certify the election results, Munroe said.
“I’ll be looking to next Friday,” said Stocker.