Stark Board of Elections keeps 11 candidates off November ballot due to petition issues
CANTON − The Stark County Board of Elections on Monday voted not to certify 11 candidates for the November ballot, finding that they submitted invalid nominating petitions.
The reasons ranged from invalid petition signatures or submitting a statement of candidacy dated after people had signed the petition.
Three of the 11 are incumbents, two on Navarre council and one on Canal Fulton's council.
The candidates denied spots on the ballot and the reasons cited are:
Sue M. Himes for East Canton Council. One valid signature short. Two who didn't live in East Canton and two not registered to vote signed the petition.
Michael A. Armstead for Meyers Lake Council. One valid signature short. Two signatures were found to not be genuine and did not match signatures in voter registration records. One signature was by the petition circulator, who's not supposed to sign the petition.
Jennifer Kluchar for Canton Local school board. Six valid signatures short. Two who signed weren't registered to vote, one who signed provided an address that didn't match the address in their voter registration and three were found not genuine.
Mary Beth Yoder to be mayor of Beach City. One valid signature short. One who signed wasn't registered to vote, four gave an address not in their voter registration record and one was found not genuine. Yoder is a Beach City council member.
Rodney A. McKenney for Beach City Council. The petition circulator failed to include on the petition the number of signatures for each page.
James D. Williams for Lawrence Township trustee. Petition circulator failed to complete the circulator statement on one of the petition pages.
Carla Carl, who was seeking to be re-elected to Navarre council. Date of statement of candidacy is after the dates by nine of the people who signed, leaving Carl six valid signatures short of the requirement. The candidate must complete the statement of candidacy before anyone signs the petition.
Jeff Shipman for Louisville City schools board. Date of statement of candidacy is after the dates by 13 people who signed, two who signed weren't registered to vote, one who signed did not provide an address and one signature was found not genuine. Shipman was short 14 valid signatures.
Michael S. Oyler for Plain Local school. Date of statement of candidacy is after the dates by 18 people who signed, leaving him 17 valid signatures short.
Jeanann M. VanDenberg seeking re-election to be Canal Fulton council member at-large. It appears one person signed two names on the petition, invalidating 18 signatures and leaving her seven valid signatures short.
Joshua D. Smith seeking re-election for Navarre council. The board, by a 2-1 vote, with member Curt Braden voting no, found that one person signed two names on the petition, invalidating all 18 of his signatures.
Related: Stark Board of Elections to investigate ballot shortages for Issue 1 vote
Jackson Township vote made on party lines
The elections board's two Republicans also outvoted the board's lone Democrat to certify Melissa Stenger, a Republican, as a candidate for Jackson Township fiscal officer.
The question was whether one person twice signed two different names on a page of her nominating petition. By law, a petition circulator who knowingly allows an unqualified person to sign a name that's not theirs on a petition page results in all the signatures on that petition page being invalid. Stenger needed to submit 25 valid signatures. She submitted 29 signatures with 17 signatures being on the petition page in question.
Republican board members Curt Braden and James Mathews found the evidence was insufficient to show that the two signatures in question were signed by one person.
"I'm of the opinion, they signed individually," Braden said.
Democratic board member Samuel Ferruccio, the board's chairman, said he thought there was a sufficient question about the signatures not to certify Stenger for the ballot.
"I think that they are similar," said Ferruccio. "But (did) one person sign both of those?"
Usually, the board would have a second Democratic board member, who could have forced a tie vote. But Stenger's opponent in the race for Jackson Township fiscal officer is Kody Gonzalez, who was that Democratic Board of Elections member until he stepped down Aug. 11. That was after he filed to run for fiscal officer to succeed his father and longtime Jackson Township Fiscal Officer Randy Gonzalez, who himself is a former Democratic member of the Board of Elections.
On Thursday, the Stark County Democratic Party's executive committee voted to recommend Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose appoint Dimitrios Pousoulides to succeed Kody Gonzalez on the Board of Elections. Pousoulides was a board member from 2019 to 2021 before Kody Gonzalez succeeded him. However, Pousoulides is awaiting LaRose's approval to return to the board.
The executive committee also voted to select Pousoulides as the party's new chairman to succeed Ferruccio, who resigned as party chair. Ferruccio, an attorney, said two partners in his law firm had retired and he indicated he needed more time to manage his law practice.
Kody Gonzalez, who is also the chief deputy clerk for the Canton Municipal Court, sat in the back row during the Board of Elections meeting Monday with Pousoulides, his father Randy Gonzalez and his boss Canton Municipal Clerk Phil Giavasis, who also is a former Democratic elections board member.
After the 2-1 vote to keep Stenger on the ballot, Kody Gonzalez, Randy Gonzalez and Giavasis left the meeting.
"We'll file a protest," Randy Gonzalez said.
His son declined to comment.
The deadline to challenge the board's certifications of candidates is Friday. It's possible Pousoulides would be appointed to the board in time to hear the protest.
The Canton Repository has submitted a public records request to the Board of Elections for the petitions where it's suspected one person signed two people's names.
Hall of Fame Village's liquor option
The Board of Elections also voted not to certify two liquor option issues for the ballot filed by the Hall of Fame Village in Canton. The Village had been seeking Sunday sales of intoxicating liquor on the premises and Sunday sales of wine and mixed beverages off the premises for all liquor permit holders in the precinct.
Regine Johnson, the deputy director of the Stark County Board of Elections, said the Hall of Fame Village failed to submit required paperwork with its petition showing that it had notified all affected liquor permit holders and liquor agency stores in the precinct.
The board also voted not to certify Paradigm Shift Craft Brewery's petition to place a liquor option on the ballot for the Massillon 2-C precinct. If approved, Sunday sales of beer, wine, mixed beverage and spiritous liquor would have been permitted at 128 North Ave. NE. Sixteen of 56 submitted signatures were found not valid when 50 valid signatures were required on the petition.
Nimishillen Township protest
Nimishillen Township Trustee Don Keefe has also filed a protest against the nominating petition of Mark Thomas of Georgetown Street NE. Keefe and Thomas are two of the five candidates for Keefe's seat on the board of trustees. Keefe filed an affidavit by a resident who claimed she signed the petition for Thomas where Thomas did not witness her sign it. But he's listed as the circulator.
Braden and Ferruccio Monday chose to certify Thomas as a candidate. But they reserved the option to remove him as a candidate if a protest hearing reveals any evidence that Thomas' petition circulator didn't witness people sign the petition. Mathews is recusing himself in the matter because he's an attorney for Nimishillen Township.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County Board of Elections votes to not certify 11 candidates
