Board certifies Nov. 7 election results

Lorain County’s numbers are in for the ballots cast in the Nov. 7 election.

On Nov. 27, Lorain County Board of Elections members Marilyn Jacobcik and Anthony Giardini voted to certify the results of this year’s general election.

There were no changes to the election night outcomes for the various races and issues on the ballot, according to the final official results.

The board members had no substantive discussion before approving the final counts with board Director Paul Adams and Deputy Director James Kramer in attendance, along with a handful of election watchers.

In some of the mostwatched and closest races:

• Vermilion mayoral candidates Jim Forthofer received 910 votes and Fred Ostrander received 494 votes on the Lorain County side of the city.

Combined with the final official results from the Erie County side of the city, Forthofer won the mayor’s seat 1,730 to 1,002.

• In Sheffield Township, incumbent Trustee Chad J. Parsons had 375 votes, and was the top vote-getter among five candidates running for two seats.

Challenger Ted Adkins received 268 votes, beating incumbent Trustee Timothy S. Mihalcik, who received 262 votes.

In that race, candidates Clint Fleming received 193 votes and Denise S. D’Agnese received 128 votes.

Mihalcik attended the board meeting Nov. 27, but did not comment publicly on the results.

In the race for the unexpired term of the Sheffield Township trustee, challenger Barbara B. Horton received 382 votes, topping incumbent Trustee David Newsome, who received 270 votes.

• In the contest for the city council seat for Amherst Ward 4, Republican candidate Matthew W. Nahorn received 402 votes, edging out Democrat Martin Heberling III, who received 397 votes.

• Write-in candidates did not come close to beating incumbent councilmen in Elyria and Lorain.

In Elyria Ward 5, Councilman Marcus Madison received 444 votes, while write-in challenger Leigh Ann Arroyo received 14 votes.

And in Lorain Ward 2, Councilman Dennis Flores received 418 votes, while write-in challenger Kyriece Brooks tallied 83 votes.

• On Nov. 7, Lorain County had 207,865 registered voters.

A total of 55,706 of them cast ballots, for official turnout of 26.8 percent.

At the high end, North Ridgeville Precinct 3-F had 1,104 registered voters and 614 cast ballots, for a voter turnout of 55.62 percent.

Lorain Precinct 3-C had 937 registered voters and 61 cast ballots for turnout of 6.51 percent.

On Nov. 7, there were 655 provisional ballots cast; the board of elections rejected 42 of those ballots.

In reviewing provisional ballots, the elections staff presented their findings to the board members, Adams said.

Usually, the staff recommend the board reject provisional ballots due to deficiencies that makes them invalid, he said.

Adams presented those findings in the Nov. 21 board of elections meeting.

He noted the county had an acceptance rate of almost 94 percent for provisional ballots.

“The vast majority of these are ones — where it’s clear — that they complied with all the directives and all the law,” Adams said.

Teams of Democrats and Republicans review the provisional ballots.

If there is no question the ballots comply with the legal requirements, the staff do not bring those to the board members because it is clear the ballots are to be accepted and counted, Adams said.

“There’s a lot of concern about provisional ballots just generally in any election,” he said. “And I think it is important that voters know the vast majority of provisional ballots are counted.

“In this case here, we’re talking nearly 94 percent of all provisional ballots that were cast, were counted.”

There were 4,692 absentee ballots cast, and the board of elections voted to reject 34 of them due to characteristics that disqualified the ballots.

Adams noted some people still believe absentee ballots are discarded or otherwise not counted.

In reality, more than 99 percent of the absentee ballots were counted for the November election, he said.

The official results are posted at www. loraincountyelections.com.