MANSFIELD — The Richland County Board of Elections released the list of candidates and the questions and issues that will appear on the ballot for the May 2, 2017 primary election.
Cities with issues and candidates include Mansfield, Ontario and Shelby, although not all candidates will be voted on during the May 2 primary. As such, Board of Elections Director Paulette Hankins noted not all precincts within Richland County would be open for the primary.
Complete Primary Candidate List & Questions and Issues
“A list of the open precincts will be released at a later date, once we have the programming completed,” Hankins said. “The townships will only be open if there’s an issue pertaining to any sub-division within their precinct, such as a school, township, or village issue.”
The filing deadline for the city of Mansfield and city of Ontario was Feb. 1, 2017. The filing deadline for the city of Shelby was at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Candidates in the cities of Mansfield and Ontario were certified by the Board of Elections at their Feb. 2 meeting. Shelby’s candidates have not been certified by the board yet, but Hankins noted there did not appear to be any fatal flaws on any of the petitions.
“The board will vote at our next meeting to nominate the Shelby candidates on through to the general (election) without actually holding a primary, therefore, the Shelby precincts will not be open for the May 2 election,” Hankins said. “There’s no candidates or issues for their ballots.”
The reason being, all of Shelby’s candidates for city council are incumbents who will be running unopposed. Councilmen Steve McLaughlin, Charlie Roub, Derrin Roberts, Garland Gates and Nathan Martin all filed for re-election, and were the only candidates who filed.
There will be two candidates for the the city of Shelby’s Municipal Court Judge in the general election, and since only two filed by the Feb. 16 deadline both will be moving on to the general election. These candidates are Gordon Eyster, who currently serves as Shelby’s law director, and Sheree Studer.
Shelby is not the only city with unopposed candidates moving directly to the general election without a primary. In the city of Mansfield, only the Republican party voters in Mansfield’s first ward will see any candidates on the May 2 primary, since this race has two Republican candidates who filed. The rest of the city of Mansfield and the city of Ontario will only have issues on their ballot.
The two Republicans who will compete in the May 2 primary election to move on to the general election are David Falquette and Dan Hardwick, a former candidate for Richland County Commissioner. Either Falquette or Hardwick will face Democrat John Harsch in the general election for the Mansfield first ward council seat.
The official candidate and questions list includes a number of tax levies from cities, townships and schools. In Mansfield, the city is proposing a charter amendment in Section 2.05 regarding income tax for a quarter-percent continuation for streets and park roads, as well as a quarter-percent income tax continuation for safety, parks and recreation, demolition of vacant properties and blight, and streetlights.
The Mansfield City School District is also asking for two tax levy renewals of 10.7 mills for five and seven years to go towards emergency requirements.
Other school tax levies include Madison Local School District asking for a levy renewal of 6.9 mills for five years for current expenses, Ontario Local School District asking for a levy renewal of 4.8 mills for five years to avoid operating deficit, and Plymouth-Shiloh Local School District asking for a levy renewal of 3.7 mills for five years to avoid an operating deficit.
Three townships will also be on the primary ballot with tax levies. Cass Township will ask for an additional 1.5 mills tax levy for five years to cover current expenses, Perry Township will ask for a levy renewal of 2.5 mills for five years for fire, and Sandusky Township will ask for an additional levy of 1.5 mills for five years for roads and bridges.
Local option and Sunday sales questions cannot be on the ballot in the primary unless there are candidates also on the ballot, according to Hankins.
“So the only local option question submitted that will be on the ballot in May is the one in Mansfield 1-E, because the Mansfield first ward has two Republican candidates vying for the first ward council seat,” Hankins said. “The other local option questions will not be on the ballot until the November election.”
