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Elections board affirms Stocker re-elected Struthers mayor
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s official ... finally.
The Nov. 3 general election that gave write-in candidate Terry Stocker a third four-year term as Struthers mayor was certified Saturday by the Mahoning County Board of Elections.
The final vote, after the board verified and counted provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots for the county was 1,431 for Stocker and 1,359 for Democrat Danny Thomas Jr., said Mark Munroe, elections board chairman.
The count could also slightly alter other vote totals across the county.
But in Struthers, because of a board snafu in counting ballots on election night, Thomas had been the unofficial winner by 72 votes.
That incorrect election result occurred because the board failed to count 147 write-in ballots from two precincts in the Struthers 3rd Ward. Those votes were counted Nov. 14, with 145 of them for Stocker, giving the incumbent mayor a 73-vote lead, which Thomas could not overcome because there were only 69 uncounted provisional and late absentee ballots to be counted.
Nevertheless, election results could not be certified until Saturday’s count of the provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots.
There were 772 valid provisional ballots, which are cast by people who are not on the books of the precinct at which they showed up to vote. They are permitted to vote, but the board then determines if they are registered to vote in Ohio. There were also 123 late-arriving absentee ballots.
That is why there is a 10-day period to give elections boards time to review provisional ballots to see if voters are properly registered, said Munroe.
Reached at home Saturday afternoon, Stocker said he and his family were “having a little celebration.”
“The 18 days since the election was like a marathon, but finally the race is officially over, and we can move ahead. Everybody was put on hold until the election was certified,” Stocker said.
“Everybody will formulate their own opinions as to what happened. Hopefully the election board will put some additional checks and balances in place so no one else will have to go through this in the future. We only have 12 precincts in the city. When the board saw the 169-vote turnaround, it should have raised a red flag,” he said.
In other action, the elections board agreed to conduct a hand recount of the anti-fracking charter amendment, the so-called Community Bill of Rights, beginning Dec. 1. It should take only one or two days, Munroe said.
The issue was not eligible for an automatic free recount, so the anti-fracking backers seeking the recount can be charged up to $55 a precinct. Youngstown has 45 precincts.