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Trumbull elections board fires longtime employee over candidate’s petition
Worker failed to report problems with petitions
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County Board of Elections on Tuesday fired 14-year employee Kalliopi Karapetsas for “gross negligence” for failing to report problems with an election candidate’s petitions.
The board’s action followed receipt of an investigatory report from Atty. Curtis Ambrosy.
Karapetsas, a Democrat, had reviewed the petitions for Marco Flaminio, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for Warren’s 3rd Ward council seat. She forwarded Flaminio’s petitions without indicating any problems with the signatures.
Later, however, the elections board discovered three instances in which the same person signed his or her name and that of another person on the petitions, and two printed signatures that did not match signatures on file at the board.
The multiple signatures resulted in Flaminio not having a sufficient number of valid signatures and caused him to be removed from the primary election ballot.
The elections board voted 4-0 Tuesday to terminate Karapetsas for “gross negligence in violation of board policies.”
Mark Alberini, board of elections chairman, and Stephanie Penrose, elections board director, acknowledged that at least one of the improper signatures belonged to a member of Karapetsas’ immediate family.
“I do not know how willful or intentional these were,” Alberini said when asked by The Vindicator. “That would be speculation at this point.”
Alberini and Penrose said the board has policies in place that require elections employees to refer a candidate’s petitions to another employee if there could be any appearance of bias on the part of the signature checker. Petitions are photocopied and time stamped when they come into the office. They are locked in a safe afterward, Alberini said.
“There are lots of checks and balances. This should never happen,” Alberini said.
Alberini said questions raised by Greg Greathouse, another Warren 3rd Ward council candidate, are why the elections board discovered the improper signatures.
Greathouse said he brought it to the elections board’s attention when he discovered the three sets of duplicate signatures, but another person later made him aware of slight changes made to the two printed signatures on Flaminio’s petitions after they were delivered to the elections board.
Alberini and Penrose said there is no proof that Karapetsas made the marks. Alberini said it does not appear to have been an attempt to change a printed name into a signature.
If that would have been done, that would be much more serious, possibly criminal, he said.
The Vindicator made a public-records request for Ambrosy’s investigative report. But as of Tuesday, the board was denying the request by citing attorney-client privilege.