Latest news with #2ndWard
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Incumbent, newcomer to face off for Lewisburg Fourth Ward Council seat
LEWISBURG — The fourth ward in Lewisburg will see an incumbent and a newcomer campaigning for one open seat in the November general election, according to unofficial election results in Union County. Incumbent Philip Stamm secured the Democratic ballot with 79 votes and newcomer Rudy Mummey secured the Republican nomination with 59 votes. They both ran unopposed. Incumbent Bina Bilenky Trahan, of 1st Ward, newcomer Erin Karahuta, of 2nd Ward, and incumbent David Heayn, of 3rd Ward, all secured the nomination for the three open seats on the Democratic ticket. Trahan had 64 votes, Karahuta had 74 and Heayn had 39. They all ran unopposed. On the Republican ticket, 1st and 3rd wards had one write-in vote apiece. Fourth Ward had four write-in votes. Mayor Kendy Alvarez also ran unopposed. She had 247 votes, securing the Democratic nomination. There were 17 write-in votes for the Republican side. The Union County Election Board is currently reviewing write-ins. The Board of Elections is meeting at 10:30 a.m. Friday for the official count. Each elected position is for four years. — JUSTIN STRAWSER
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who has been elected to represent Lancaster's 2nd, 5th and 6th wards?
LANCASTER — Lancaster City Council's 2nd, 5th and 6th wards had candidates on the ballot this May 6 primary election. The unofficial results from the Fairfield County Board of Elections are in. All the candidates are Republicans. 2nd Ward Joe Bizjak won the primary over his two opponents were Talia Barsi and Elliot E. Hall. Bizjak received 196 votes out of 409 votes. Hall had 147 votes and Barsi had 66 votes. Bizjack is the board liaison at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation and has represented the 2nd Ward since January 2024. He has highlighted his work with the police department and local ADAMH board to try to increase those services and strengthen the partnerships in the community, and has urged the importance of stable housing in Lancaster. Bizjak thanked everybody who voted for him and placed their confidence in him to serve another term. "I look forward to serving on 2nd Ward and the City of Lancaster well and being a city council member for all the residents of the 2nd ward, not just Republicans, but Democrats and independents, as well," he said. "I look forward to working with everybody to keep moving Lancaster forward." 5th Ward This is a close one. The State of Ohio says that any local results within 0.5 percent of each other are subject to an automatic recount. Newcomer Ethan Dorr currently has 106 votes, just one more vote than current 5th Ward representative, Kristina Crites at 105. Dorr, 22, said he decided to run for city council after the public LGBTQ+ pride events and live drag show downtown last September. Crites was first appointed to a ward seat in 2021 and has since served as clerk of council and has been re-appointed to fill the ward seat. She is also currently the Director of Compliance for a bank. 6th Ward Stephen Ogg will likely take over the 6th Ward seat from his opponent, Becky Tener, who has served since 2014. Ogg received 164 votes, and Tener received 161. Ogg currently works at a law office and decided to run, hoping to cut unnecessary spending in the city's budget and lower income and sales tax. He said he wants people to be able to come to Lancaster, find a job, comfortably live here and raise a family without being taxed excessively. All election results are unofficial until the local board certifies them. May 10 is the last day for boards of elections to receive non-UOCAVA absentee ballots by mail that were postmarked on or before May 5. UOCAVA absentee ballots must be received (by mail) by the boards of elections by this date to be counted, according to the Ohio Secretary of State website. This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: One vote difference: Lancaster's 5th Ward seat is a close one
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What will be on the May 6 ballot for Fairfield County's primary elections?
LANCASTER — Fairfield County's 2025 primary elections will be from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6. Polling locations are based on your address and can be found on the Fairfield County Board of Elections' website. During this election, Lancaster City Council candidates will be on the ballot. There are 13 people running for at-large seats and three wards. There are six people running for the four open at-large seats: Burt Conley (R), Alayna Hoop (R), Rob Knisley (R), Corey Schoonover (R), Michael Wing (R) and Bob Wolfinger (R). There are three people running for 2nd Ward: Talia Barsi (R), Joe Bizjak (R) and Elliot E. Hall (R). The two running for the 5th Ward are Kristina Crites (R) and Ethan Dorr (R). For the 6th ward, Stephen Ogg (R) and Becky Tener (R) are running. There will be several issues on the ballot, including tax levies and liquor sales in Pickerington, such as allowing the sales of intoxicating liquor on Sundays. The Fairfield Board of Developmental Disabilities renewal levy is also up for a vote. The tax levy proposals are for Bloom Township, Greenfield Township (unincorporated) and Hocking Township as well as Southwest Licking Local School District, Teays Valley Local School District and Walnut Township Local School District. More details on these levies can be found on the county's elections website. There will also be a state issue on the ballot proposing a constitutional amendment to fund public infrastructure capital improvements by permitting the issuance of general obligation bonds. This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Fairfield County Election Day: When and where to vote
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Paterson council president indicted, allegedly destroyed ballots for other candidates
PATERSON — City Council President Alex Mendez faces a new indictment on voter fraud charges in a case that has dragged on for almost five years involving an all vote-by-mail election that took place at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020. Mendez' wife, Yohanny, and two of his campaign workers, Omar Ledesma and Iris Rigo, also are accused of election crimes under the indictment announced Wednesday morning by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. The accused allegedly collected mail-in ballots completed by voters, brought them to Mendez campaign headquarters, destroyed the ballots that did not contain votes for Mendez in Paterson's 3rd Ward council race, and replaced them with bogus ballots for Mendez campaign allegedly obtained the replacement ballots by stealing blank ballots from mailboxes in neighborhoods with large numbers of supporters for Mendez' main opponent, 20-year Councilman William McKoy. 'As alleged, this case is not simply about a city council seat,' said Platkin. 'The people's right to vote and to have their voices heard was subverted by what we allege to be an unlawful conspiracy. This was unfair to the voters of Paterson. It was, as the grand jury charged, fraud and theft.' Mendez has professed his innocence countless times since the original election fraud charges were filed against him in June 2020, just days before he was supposed to take the oath of office. As recently as April 16, Paterson Press asked the council president about the charges of the AG's case against him. 'I hope and pray that I will get my day in court so I can clear my name,' Mendez said. The councilman last week bemoaned the massive amount of money he said he has spent for lawyers to defend him against the election fraud charges for the past 58 months. 'With all that money, I could buy another property,' said Mendez, who works in real estate. 'I could pay my daughter's tuition for college.' Voters in Paterson's 3rd Ward seem to believe Mendez did nothing wrong. He won that district's council seat by nine votes in a special election in November 2020 and then registered a 341-vote victory in his May 2024 re-election bid. Mendez received a total of more than 5,000 votes in those two elections, plus another 4,400 when he ran for mayor in 2022. Five years ago, the AG office filed election fraud charges against Mendez, 1st Ward Councilman Michael Jackson, and two campaign workers for 2nd Ward Councilman Shahin Khalique, including his brother. State authorities quietly dropped the charges against the Khalique backers in 2022. But the case against Jackson is still pending. The 1st Ward councilman and AG's office have engaged in a two-year battle over the seizure of Jackson's cell phone in a witness tampering probe stemming from the election fraud charges. Jackson, like Mendez, ran for mayor in 2022, losing to Andre Sayegh. Jackson remains a staunch adversary of Sayegh. But Mendez has developed an alliance with the mayor and participated in many of Sayegh's press conferences during the past 22 months. After the AG's initial election fraud case against Mendez dragged on for more than three years, Platkin in October 2023 announced a new set of charges against the councilman, his wife, and political supporters. Political insiders have said they think the charges filed against Mendez' wife were designed to convince the councilman to agree to plead guilty. The indictments announced on Wednesday morning stem from the October 2023 charges. 'The tenacious, hard work of the investigators and prosecutors on this case uncovered new information about the lengths the defendants allegedly went to in an attempt to rig Paterson's municipal election and cover up their conduct,' said Drew Skinner, executive director of OPIA. Real ID: The Real ID deadline is one week away. What to know if you still need to get one The affidavits of probable cause filed by state investigators 18 months ago talked about a cooperating witness within the Mendez camp and cited photos and recordings substantiating the allegations. The court documents detailing the charges against Mendez and his co-defendants talk about the pre-election discovery of 347 mail-in ballots for the Paterson council races in a mailbox in Haledon. Some of the voters whose names were on the ballots allegedly told state investigators that a Mendez campaign worker had called them and volunteered to pick up votes and submit them, the affidavits said. The cooperating witness allegedly described in detail the practice of removing votes for McKoy and replacing them with ballots for Mendez. The affidavit said the witness allegedly told detectives that he, Mendez, and Ledesma drove to the mailbox in Haledon and that Mendez watched from the vehicle while he and Ledesma mailed more than 300 Paterson ballots in the neighboring town. This article originally appeared on Paterson council's Alex Mendez indicted on voter fraud charges
Chicago Tribune
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Incumbent North Chicago mayor faces two challengers who think the city needs a change
North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham, Jr., is seeking his sixth term leading the city, while two challengers _ Ald. Anthony Coleman, 2nd Ward, and David Hood _ believe it is time for a change. With 20 years in the mayor's office and three terms as an alderman before that, Rockingham, 70, is immersed in city government. He said the North Chicago is at a precipice of progress and he wants to lead the city through it. Some things take time, and he has had a hand in much of it. 'My vision has never changed,' Rockingham said. 'You always have to concentrate on three things for the people—safety, economic development and infrastructure. If you have those three things, people and businesses will come to North Chicago.' Coleman, 50, ousted an incumbent City Council member two years ago to start his career in elective office. Since then, he said he has helped push for redoing Foss Park Avenue from downtown North Chicago to the beach. 'It's time to pass the torch,' Coleman said. 'It's time to move the city forward. Sitting in the mayor's seat allows you to help move ahead the entire operation.' Hood, 57, a longtime community activist who has worked as a security guard at both campuses of Waukegan High School, said he helped develop the Citizen's Advisory Committee while working with the police department in 2012. His candidacy was not his decision. 'It's a calling,' Hood said. 'The Lord called on me to better my city.' Voters will decide whether Rockingham, a Democrat, Coleman, or Hood, both independents, will be elected mayor of North Chicago on Tuesday to lead the city for the next four years. Believing the young people are the city's future, Hood said he wants programs to keep them positively engaged and out of trouble, but he also wants those programs to help them develop skills for a good career. For him, the age range is between 18 and 35. 'We need things for youth to stay out of trouble,' Hood said. 'I will work with organizations which can get them apprenticeships. We need to train people for these jobs. The school system can prepare them for good jobs so they stay in the community.' With the downtown area in his ward, Coleman said he understands it well. He has a vision for improving the area on Sheridan Road from just south of 16th Street and north to Audrey Nixon Blvd. to make it a gathering place for residents and visitors. 'I'd like to see it be like a small Lake Bluff where people can walk around, sit down, or do a little shopping,' Coleman said. 'They should be able to have a cup of coffee or have lunch outside. Enhancing the downtown area is part of the city's strategic plan, which Rockingham helped shepherd through the City Council on its way to winning the Daniel Burham award in September. Among its elements, the plan will use the development of the 40-acre Sheridan Crossing area south of downtown and north of Buckley Road with mixed-use residential and commercial buildings. The two will connect with each other by foot and other methods to downtown. 'It ties it all together and is part of the downtown revitalization. There will be places for food and other businesses. It's going to help develop the area along Martin Luther King Drive,' Rockingham said. 'I'd like to see a hotel,' he added as a way for people attending weekly recruit graduations at Naval Station Great Lakes to stay in North Chicago instead of elsewhere. Joining business development as part of his vision for North Chicago, Rockingham said he has made improvements in public safety and will continue to do more. During his current term, the crime rate has dropped 60%. 'We're using technology like license plate readers so we know if a criminal is in the city,' Rockingham said. 'We're using ShotSpotter so police can get to a crime scene faster. We're using community policing so we have more officers on the street.' Should Coleman become mayor, he said he wants to double the size of the public works department. It will enable more infrastructure projects, like redoing sidewalks and repaving roads. It will include engineering personnel to do the work currently done by outside contractors. 'It will allow us to hire more employees from within the city as well as doing engineering projects in-house,' Coleman said. 'We'll be able to do projects that are long overdue.' Another thing at the top of Hood's agenda is lowering property taxes. He said they are too high for many of the residents and need to be reduced. He also wants to enhance public safety by improving the relationships between the residents and the police. 'I always wanted to be a police officer,' Hood said. 'I want to have a good police presence and have them be a part of the community. If there are issues, (residents)should be able to go to the Citizens Advisory Board.' Early voting continues through Monday at North Chicago Public Library, the Lake County Courthouse & Administration Building in Waukegan, and 15 other sites throughout the county. Polls are open election day between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega said people can vote either at their preferred polling place or any other site around Lake County which is convenient.
