Ohio University junior Jeff Yount was disqualified as a Republican at-large Athens City Council candidate last Wednesday. However, Yount said he intends to run as an independent in the primary election on May 3.
Of the 50 signatures that must be submitted by candidates to qualify to be on the ballot for the primary, Yount submitted 55. However, six were invalid, thereby disqualifying Yount's petition, said Howard Stevens, a member of the Athens County Board of Elections.
Signatures must include those of registered Athens voters who voted for the same party in the past two primaries as the candidate they are
supporting now.
The name, address, signature and party of each person who signs the petition is then checked against voter registration cards before a candidate is declared valid. If any part does not match, the signature is not counted.
Yount collected the signatures himself, but I just failed to understand how stringent the whole process is
he said.
Although all candidates must be careful to meet these requirements, having students sign petitions is often unreliable because they change addresses and rarely update changes with the election office, Stevens said.
We always tell (candidates) to get significantly more than the required number because invariably there will be some that are invalid he added.
Athens County Republican Party Chairman Pete Couladis said he was disappointed Yount was disqualified but that there was still a potential for his success as an independent.
He should have had more people circulating petitions and he wouldn't have run into that problem
Couladis said.
Yount said he now is collecting the 25 signatures needed to run as an independent. The deadline for filing these petitions is May 2 -the day before the election -at 4 p.m. Independents can collect signatures from Athens residents of any party.
I still feel that I can and will do a good job on council
and that is why I am still running
Yount said.
Yount, a Dayton native, emphasized that he believes council races shouldn't be partisan anyways because city issues do not divide opinions along party lines.
Although at first disappointed, Yount said he believes -in Democrat-dominated Athens --this change may actually work in
his benefit.
Now
I'm an independent... so (voters) don't really know what party I am
so I'm more likely to get more votes from the people who don't really follow it than if I were a Republican
he said.
The Board of Elections office will do checks to look for possible problems before a petition is turned in, Stevens said.
Stevens has served as a Republican member of the Board of Elections for eight years and said that Yount's election hopes might be hurt because voters tend to follow either Democratic or Republican party lines.
An independent usually has to be pretty well known (to be elected)
Stevens said. You rarely see an independent elected to anything.
The central and executive committees of the Athens County Republican Party can still choose to contribute money to Yount's independent campaign; such a decision would be made in the summer or fall, Couladis said.
OU senior and Athens resident Matt Bernosky, who is running at-large as the Republican Party's only candidate, might benefit from a greater portion of donations as a result of Yount's disqualification, Couladis said.
