Stark County primary election updates: Sherer takes lead in Canton mayor race

The Repository is posting updates throughout the day on this page.

Former State Rep. Thomas West did very well in the count of those last three Canton precincts. He significantly dented much of Council President William Sherer's lead. But it wasn't enough. With the Tuesday night vote count done, Sherer, who led by 217 votes before the final three precinct vote counts were tallied, finished the evening with a 66-vote lead over West.

It's unclear how many provisional and absentee ballots that will arrive by Saturday are outstanding. But West would have to get at least 66 more votes than Shearer in that last batch of votes, to tie Shearer.

Shearer, who got 34.26% of the vote, leads 1,669 votes to 1,603 for West, who got 32.9%.

In the Canton council at-large race, Crystal Smith picked up enough votes in the final precincts to pull ahead of former Councilman Joe Cole for the third and final Democratic spot to advance to the November election. Smith, who got 17% of the vote, beat Cole, with 14.2% 1,947 votes to 1,625. Incumbents Louis Giavasis, with 19.6%, and James Babcock, with 16.53% won the other two spots.

Voter turnout before valid provisional ballots and late-arriving absentee ballots are counted was 16.1% in Stark County. The turnout already exceeds the 14.75% in the May primary in 2019, which like 2023 was in the third calendar year after the last presidential election and featured a Canton mayoral race, albeit one with an incumbent.

In Ward 8, former Canton Fire Capt. Richard Sacco edged out incumbent Peter Ferguson for Democratic nominee for Ward 8 councilman. But the margin is only five. And it appears late-arriving absentee ballots and provisional ballots will decide who wins the nomination.

It was a roller coaster ride of a vote count for the $4.3-mill $60 million bond levy for Canton City Schools. Down by 25 votes with three precincts left to be counted, the levy garnered enough support in those final precincts for the yes vote to pull ahead 2,370 to 2,315, a 55-vote margin. The current margin is too large for an automatic recount.

Sherer builds lead

It appears Council President William Sherer, a local union official, is on his way to becoming the Democratic nominee for Canton mayor unless he loses the final three precincts to be counted by large margins.

With 45 of 48 precincts counted, he leads former State Rep. Thomas West by 217 votes as Sherer's lead has expanded in the late stages of the vote count. In a five-candidate race, Sherer had nearly 36% of the vote and West was just under 31%. Councilman Bill Smuckler, D-At Large, remained a distant third at 23.3%.

Meanwhile, with all precincts counted in Canton Ward 8, Richard Sacco, a former Canton Fire captain in the Ward 8 Democratic council primary, has taken a tenuous five-vote lead over incumbent Peter Ferguson, a former county commissioner. It appears that provisional and absentee ballots will decide the contest.

And with three precincts left to be counted, a 4.3-mill $60 million Canton City Schools district bond levy is losing by 25 votes, 2,230 to 2,205. This contest could be decided by provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots.

Sherer takes lead

A large batch of results just appeared on the Stark County Board of Elections website.

The Canton City School's levy is winning. Funding requests for schools in Louisville, Perry and Lake are losing.

With 62% of precincts reporting in the Democratic primary for Canton mayor, William V. Sherer II was leading with 34.98% of the vote. Thomas West was trailing him by 3.46 percentage points, and Bill Smuckler was 11.03 percentage points behind Sherer.

All three were at separate election night watch parties Tuesday night.

Sherer, the current City Council president, greeted supporters at the Conestoga Grill. By about 8 p.m., guests were standing shoulder to shoulder throughout much of the restaurant.

"I'm very happy with the campaign that we ran," Sherer said, adding that he was glad the primary season was coming to an end and running on little sleep.

West, who unsuccessfully sought re-election as a state representative last fall, said he also was exhausted after running two campaigns so close together. He and several other council candidates gathered at Starz, 111 Cleveland Ave SW, where dance music and stage lights created a lively atmosphere.

While he was hopeful, West recalled the partial votes from November showing him in the lead until the end.

"You never know until the last vote is counted," he said.

Smuckler, an at-large councilman, was checking the results on a computer at Grapes in a Glass with a crowd of about 50. He, too, was eager to see more results.

"I've got no way of predicting this," he said.

Initial results

The Stark County Board of Elections has released the first batch of results in the Democratic primary for Canton mayor. The first results are for 1,324 ballots, possibly the in-person early vote result.

Former State Rep. Thomas West, a former Ward 2 councilman, leads the field of five candidates at 453 votes to 423 votes for Council President William Sherer IV. Longtime Councilman Bill Smuckler, who's running for Canton mayor for the third time, is at 349 votes.

Kristin Bates Aylward, Canton's former law director, leads Vince Watts, the former head of the Greater Stark County Urban League, 757 votes to 491 for the Democratic nominee for council president.

Incumbents James Babcock and Louis Giavasis lead in the Democratic primary for council at-large. Former Councilman Joe Cole leads Crystal Smith for the third spot. Smuckler is not seeking re-election to his at-large seat because he chose to run for mayor.

Incumbent Chris Smith in the Canton Ward 4 council seat Democratic primary has a lead over challenger George Lancaster.

In the Democratic contest for Ward 8 councilman, former Stark County commissioner Peter Ferguson has a slight lead over his challenger Richard Sacco. Frank Morris, the incumbent, is up 157 to 74 votes over challenger Brian Horner for Democratic nominee for the Ward 9 council seat.

In the Democratic primary for Massillon City Auditor, John Ferrero, the former Stark County prosecutor, is up 158 votes to 107 over Massillon Treasurer Linda Litman. Justin Richard leads over Antonia Carbone for Massillon law director.

Incumbent Ted Herncane, Holly Bryan-Huth and Robert Williams are leading in the Democratic primary for Massillon council at large over Aaron Spencer. On the Republican side, only a few percentage points separate the candidates. Incumbent Ed Lewis IV is in the lead and Sarita Cunningham and Jason Hout are seeking to advance with him to the general election. James Haavisto, a former Republican candidate for state representative is fourth.

Jack Moore has a slim lead over Eric Ray in the Democratic primary contest for Massillon Council Ward 2.

In the Republican primary for Massillon Municipal Clerk, John Paquelet is leading former Brewster Councilman Steven Tharp, Jr.. The winner will face longtime incumbent Democrat Johnnie Maier in November.

The two countywide renewal issues for the Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities 3.3-mill levy and 0.1-mill Stark County 911 levy along with Alliance's 3-mill parks levy renewal appear to be on their way to being approved.

Early voters were rejecting the renewal of the Louisville School District's 3.8-mill emergency requirements levy, an additional 7.3-mills levy for the Perry Local School District, an additional 13 mills-levy for the Lake Local School District, the proposed additional Lawrence Township 1.65-mill road levy, an additional 1.05-mill road levy in Osnaburg Township, an additional 0.15-mill Osnaburg Township cemetery levy and an additional 1.3-mill fire levy in Osnaburg Township.

The yes vote led for a 4.3-mills $60 million bond levy for the Canton City School District, a proposed 4-mill replacement and 1.9-mill increase Canton Township fire levy as well as a proposed 0.5-mill Tuscarawas Township fire levy and proposed 1-mill replacement park levy in Jackson Township.

Polls close

At 7:30 p.m. today, all 108 polling locations in Stark County for the primary closed along with all polling locations throughout Ohio. Anyone who got in line or entered before the doors to the polling location before 7:30 p.m. will be permitted to cast their ballots.

Boards of elections were permitted to process paper ballots as they were received. Now with the polls closing at 7:30 p.m., they can now tabulate votes, insert memory cards from polling location voting machines into a voting tabulator server and issue early vote tallies. The Stark County Board of Elections often releases the results for in-person early voting first.

Voting turnout light, as expected

With four hours remaining to vote, Stark County Board of Elections officials said just over 10% of registered voters had cast a ballot at the polls today, voted early or returned an absentee ballot.

Board of Elections Deputy Director Regine Johnson said 17,402 voters - about 8.3 % of registered voters - had voted as of 3:30 p.m.

About 2.4% voted via absentee ballot, she added. There are a few absentee ballots that have not been received by the county elections office.

Turnout for a primary election is on par with previous years, Johnson said, noting that turnout was 10.57% in 2021, 14.75% in 2019 and 9.762% in 2017.

"Normally we are close to 10. After that, it depends what is on the ballot," she said. "Some areas with more interesting items on the ballot have seen a lot of voters. I'm very interested to see what happens."

No major problems reported at polls

Stark County Board of Elections officials said Tuesday morning that voting across the county is going smoothly.

Johnson said there are always small issues but there have been no major problems at polling locations across the county.

Turnout appears to be lower, she said, noting primary elections, including races for mayors, typically yield more voters casting ballots.

Early voting was down as well, Johnson added.

"We never had a line of people waiting to vote like we had in previous elections, especially the presidential races," she said.

As for the new photo identification requirements, there have been no problems reported by polling location officials.

At the Board of Elections, only voters needing to cast a provisional ballot could vote at the location. Officials were on hand to help voters determine their polling location. A provisional ballot is when a voter's eligibility is in question and the voter would otherwise not be permitted to vote.

The provisional ballot contains the same information as a regular ballot but it is cast "provisionally" until election officials can verify the voter's eligibility to vote, according to the Ohio Secretary of State's website.

Provisional ballots can be used for a variety of reasons, including if a voter's eligibility is in question or voter has recently moved and did not update their voter registration.

Johnson said provisional ballots will not be counted until after the four-day period of time voters have to appear at the board to prove their eligibility.

Voters visit polls, cast ballots for mayors, school levies

Voter turnout has been slow, but steady across Stark County, elections officials said.

Jonathan Crawford, voting location manager at a polling location at the Boys & Girls Club in Massillon, said for a primary election and with the cold and wet weather, he expected a low voter turnout.

Two hours after the polls opened, 70 registered voters had cast ballots at the polling location on the city's west side. The location plays host to four precincts with 3,855 voters eligible to cast ballots.

Last year during the November general election, 15% of the voters in the four precincts cast ballots, he said.

So far, the polling location has not experienced any problems with voters not having the required photo identification.

Voting location manager Debbie Sharkey said her polling location at the Canton Baptist Activities building on Whipple Avevenue NW in Canton Township has not had any problems since the polls opened.

One voter had to cast a provisional ballot because his driver's license was expired by two weeks.

"He didn't know it was expired but he could still vote," Sharkey explained.

He has four days to renew his license and present it to the Stark County Board of Elections so that his ballot will be counted, she added.

Sharkey said voting had been steady. More than 100 voters had cast votes by 9:30 a.m. The polling location has 3,400 registered voters that cover precincts serving Canton, Canton Township and Perry Township residents.

For a primary election on a rainy day, Sharkey said it has been a "decent turnout."

Some of the items on the ballot — including the five-way Democratic primary for Canton and the Perry Local Schools operating levy — could be driving the steady stream of voters, she added.

Polls opened at 6:30 a.m. You can vote in the primary election until 7:30 p.m. at your polling location in Stark County.

For a full list of candidates and issues, visit https://starkcountyohio.gov/government/offices/board_of_elections/.

Photo ID required to vote in Ohio primary election

Under the state's new election law, you're required to show photo ID in order to vote. If you don't or can't, you can cast a provisional ballot, but you have to return to the board of elections within four days of election day, instead of seven days under the old law, to provide a qualifying form of ID for your ballot to be counted.

Boards of elections have until eight days after the election, May 10, to determine what provisional ballots can be counted.

The absentee ballot postmark deadline was Monday. May 6 — four days after the election instead of 10 under the old law — is the last day for boards of elections to receive absentee ballots postmarked by May 1.

You or one of your near relatives can drop your absentee ballot in the drop box at the Stark County Board of Elections, 3525 Regent Ave NE, Canton, until 7:30 p.m. tonight, when the polls close.

What are valid forms of photo ID for Ohioans?

Acceptable forms of ID include:

• Ohio driver's license

• State of Ohio ID card

• Interim ID form issued by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles

• U.S. passport

• U.S. passport card

• U.S. military ID card

• Ohio National Guard ID card

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card

All photo ID must have an expiration date that has not passed, photo of the voter and the voter's name, which must conform to the name that appears in the poll list or poll book. An unexpired Ohio driver's license, state ID card or interim documentation with a voter's former address is acceptable as long as the current address is listed in the poll book.

Voters previously had the option to show an alternate form of ID, such as a utility bill or paycheck that indicated their current address. Those documents will no longer be accepted. A county-issued veteran's ID also does not qualify.

Ohioans who are 17 and older can obtain a free state ID from the state BMV.

What to know: Ohio's new voter ID law

What's on the ballot in Stark County?

Voters in Stark communities will decide on a number of primaries, levies and other issues. Among offices on the ballot in Stark County are mayor's posts in Canton and Alliance. Canton and Massillon also have large groups of candidates seeking at-large seats on their city councils.

Voters seeking issues-only ballots will see two countywide renewal levies. The Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities is asking for the renewal of a five-year, 3.3-mill levy for programs and services and facility maintenance. Voters will also decide whether to renew a 0.1-mill levy for the maintenance and operation of the county's 911 system for five years.

Canton City Schools voters will see Issue 18, which would build two elementary schools and change how the district of nearly 8,000 students educates its youngest pupils. Issue 19, out of Perry Local School District, would provide new operating money. Lake Local Schools also is seeking new operating money.

East Canton voters will see an 8.1-mill levy for the village's police department. Osnaburg Township is seeking three new property taxes − 0.15 mills for cemetery maintenance; a 1.05-mill levy for road maintenance; and 1.3 mills for fire protection.

In Alliance, voters will be asked to renew a 3-mill property tax that funds parks and recreation activities. The issue first was passed five years ago.

A full rundown of candidates and issues is available online at https://starkcountyohio.gov/government/offices/board_of_elections.

The Repository will be posting updates throughout the day on this page.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County primary election updates: Voter turnout slow but steady