WARREN — The Trumbull County Board of Elections restored a Braceville Township trustee candidate to the ballot, ruled that a potential Hubbard Township trustee candidate is ineligible for a second issue and decided not to take action on a complaint against a Newton Falls school board candidate.

The board voted Wednesday to certify Adam Rogers to the Nov. 4 ballot in Braceville.

The board didn’t certify Rogers at its Aug. 14 meeting because he didn’t have enough valid signatures. He turned in petitions with 26 signatures, needing 25 to be valid. The board certified 22 signatures, but noted that three people printed their names rather than use their signatures.

Rogers was able to get notarized affidavits from those three people that they signed his petition with their printed names and the board restored him.

The board didn’t certify Tim Gilliland as a Hubbard Township trustee at its Aug. 14 because he signed and dated his petitions after collecting signatures, which is considered a fatal flaw under state election law.

With Gilliland appealing the decision, the board on Wednesday also invalidated him as a candidate because he submitted one front page of a petition with his statement of candidacy and three back pages. Each petition submitted must have a front page with a statement of candidacy and a back page. That is also a fatal flaw under state law.

The board will meet Sept. 3 to have a hearing on Gilliland’s request for reconsideration. But with two fatal flaws and two votes to not certify Gilliland, including one in which it went out of its way to rule his candidacy ineligible, it is unlikely the board will change its decision.

NEWTON FALLS

The board declined Wednesday to consider holding a hearing on a protest of Rachael M. Rankin’s candidacy for the Newton Falls school board.

Incumbent school board member Amie F. Crowder filed the protest contending Rankin’s job as dean of students for the Trumbull County Career & Technical Center “is in direct incompatibility as deemed by the ethics laws of the state” to run for Newton Falls school board.

But that hasn’t been determined.

Also, board Director Stephanie Penrose said it is not up to the board to decide compatibility. It would be up to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office or perhaps the Ohio Ethics Commission to make that decision, Penrose said.

That wouldn’t even be considered unless Rankin is elected.

There is nothing to stop Rankin from running for office, Penrose said.

Crowder put the name of Tonya Kline, another incumbent school board member, on the complaint to the board of elections.

Kline said she merely asked if Rankin was eligible, but never signed the complaint to the board.

Crowder said Wednesday that she put Kline’s name on the complaint because there was “miscommunication” between the two.

In a Wednesday letter to the elections board, Crowder wrote that Kline’s name “was there only as a reference since the attachment of letter from the (school district’s) attorney was addressed to” the two of them.

In a Tuesday night email to the board, Rankin asked its members “to take this serious matter into consideration as it is my understanding that Amie Crowder’s actions have not only violated numerous ethics rules, but also laws, specifically” about forgery and election falsification.

Crowder said she has nothing but respect for Rankin and only wanted to make sure the law is followed.

“This is not about Mrs. Rankin as a person at all,” Crowder said. “This is no reflection on the name. It didn’t matter what the name would be. It is the electoral process and the interpretation from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.”

But Rankin said Crowder has “very personal” issues with her and her family.

Rankin said: “She behaved unethically. It’s a personal vendetta. She overstepped her bounds. Facts are facts. She turned in a fraudulent document, and it’s a crime.”

In a July 30 email response to Crowder about Rankin’s eligibility, Jennifer Hardin, the Ohio School Boards Association’s Division of Legal Services’ senior deputy director, said there there is an incompatibility issue with a principal employed by a joint vocational school district from which a school district acquires services from being on a board of education.

Hardin’s response didn’t address Rankin’s position as TCTC’s dean of students, writing that a decision is needed by the attorney general.

In an Aug. 11 email to Crowder and Kline about Rankin, Megan J. Bair, the school district’s attorney, wrote that the AG’s opinion on a joint vocational school’s principal “would similarly affect someone in a JVS director role.” She advised the board to seek an opinion from the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Rankin said there is a difference between her job and a principal, and an opinion is needed by the attorney general and the ethics commission though she doesn’t see a conflict.

If a ruling is made after the election that there is a conflict should she win, Rankin said she wouldn’t become a school board member.

But Rankin said she doesn’t see a compatibility issue while Crowder said there is one.