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Five less candidates to be on Nov. ballot

LISBON — There will be five less candidates on the Nov. 7 election ballot, two by choice, following action taken at Monday’s county elections board meeting..

The board ruled Rogers Councilman Tom Chambers, New Waterford Councilman Gary DeMarchis, and Andrew Arcuragi, who wanted to run for the East Liverpool school board, did not obtain enough valid signatures on their candidacy petitions to qualify for the Nov. 7 ballot.

The board was meeting to certify the candidacy petitions of those seeking to run for non-partisan office in the general election, the filing deadline for which was Aug. 9, with the board certifying the other 147 non-partisan candidacy petitions for the ballot.

Elections board director Adam Booth said Chambers had enough signatures but the problem is he acknowledged on the petition witnessing 12 signatures when it contained 14 signatures, and when the figures do not match it invalidates the entire petition.

“Isn’t that an honest mistake?” asked board member Victor Maroscher.

“Yes, it probably is,” but the law is clear that it is a fatal flaw, Booth said.

In the case of DeMarchis and Arcuragi, they did not have enough valid signatures left to qualify once the elections board staff completed its review to determine whether those who signed their petitions were registered voters, if their address matched what was on file, etc.

Booth said the three are not allowed to run as write-in candidates since their petitions were disqualified. The filing deadline for write-in candidates is Aug. 28.

Speaking of write-in candidates, Booth reported East Liverpool City Treasurer Kathy Buzzard filed paperwork with the election board to withdraw as a candidate for re-election. Meanwhile, Richard Rudibaugh has filed petitions to run for East Liverpool treasurer as a write-in, the only person to do so.

The board also accepted the request of Ernest Wiseman to withdraw as an independent candidate for East Liverpool city council-at-large.

In other action, the board certified for the Nov. 7 election 26 of the 27 proposed ballot issues. Not certified due to lack of valid signatures was a proposed liquor option for the Pizza Hut in St. Clair Township, which was seeking voter permission to sell beer Monday through Saturday. Of the 116 signatures collected, 76 were found to be valid — 13 less than was needed to qualify for the ballot.

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