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Seven Trumbull candidates, two liquor options off November ballot
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The field of four candidates hoping to unseat two incumbents for Liberty Township trustee this November dropped by two Tuesday as the Trumbull County Board of Elections ruled Ray Dressel and Raymond Agnone Jr. would not make the ballot.
Dressel was among four people whose candidacy was rejected because the circulator statement on his or her petitions had not been filled out completely.
A circulator statement has a place for the signature of the person who circulated the petition indicating that he or she witnessed people signing the petition.
It also has place where the circulator indicates the number of signatures the circulator witnessed.
Stephanie Penrose, elections board director, said it’s “pretty black and white” that a candidate cannot be certified to go on the ballot if his or her petitions have an incomplete circulator statement.
In addition to Dressel, the three others whose candidacy was ruled invalid were Gary Kidd, Joseph Badger Board of Education; Michele DeProfio, Lakeview Board of Education; and Tracie Allen, Lordstown Board of Education.
Agnone, meanwhile, was removed from the ballot because he was one of three people who had an insufficient number of valid signatures on his petitions.
The others are Alma Griffith, Newton Falls Board of Education, and Jack Finch, Howland Township trustees.
With Dressel and Agnone off the ballot, incumbents Stan Nudell and Jason Rubin will face challengers Gregory Cizmar and Arnie Clebone.
The board also rejected two local liquor options because they provided too few valid signatures on petitions.
The two were Champion Beach House, 4551 Mahoning Ave. in Champion Township; and Avalon South Golf Course, 9794 E. Market St. in Howland. Avalon South is owned by the city of Warren, but the applicant for the liquor license was the management company that runs the golf course.
All other candidates, issues and liquor options were certified to be on the November ballot.
Elections board members also met with three vendors Tuesday who want to sell the county their voting systems to replace the electronic equipment currently used in the county.
The companies are ES&S, Dominion Voting Systems and R.B.M. Consultants.
All three brought systems to the elections board offices that use paper ballots that voters mark with a pen. The ballots are read at the polls by electronic tabulators, and the ballots are then deposited into a receptable below.
All of the systems look alike – a tablator atop a receptacle that looks like a rubber garbage can.
Elections board members said recently their 12-year-old electronic voting machines are near the end of their useful life, and they would like to replace them in 2018.
The paper-and-pen voting systems in use in places like Mahoning County are less expensive than electronic systems and provide voters with greater confidence that their votes are being counted correctly, officials said.