Hearing proceeding on whether Joy Jordan will be allowed to run in Oct. 1 mayoral primary

The Board finds that mayoral candidate Levester Adams had only 68 valid signatures, 23 short of the required 91. Mr. Adams says that he had 85 valid signatures but that the Board discarded several pages of his petitions. The Board’s response is that those pages were discarded because of a technical error in calculating the number of signatures.

Lateek Rasheen Shabazz has withdrawn his petitions and will not be a candidate in the Democratic mayoral primary.

The Board is now considering concerns raised about candidate Joy Jordan’s petitions.

The Board is about to hear from several parties, including the East Cleveland law director, Dr. Joy Jordan, attorney Pittman, and East Cleveland activists O. Mays and Gerald Strothers.

Norton to remain on ballot for East Cleveland mayoral primary

Discussion is now taking place regarding the issues of (A) standing and (B) the issuance of a certificate to Gary Norton entitling him to hold office. Board member Eben (Sandy) McNair is telling Mr. Silvera that the Board’s staff has advised that Mr. Norton is now in compliance. Mr. Silvera is arguing that that Mr. Norton remains in noncompliance under Ohio Revised Code 3517.

I have just completed a hasty review of the confidential report of the county prosecutor’s July 15, 2013 report, “Opinion Regarding Compliance with Ohio Law for Issuing Certificates of Election and Nomination”. The Board during this meeting authorized the release of this opinion to the public.

It appears that the Board “[is] not authorized to restrict a person from becoming a candidate. The statute only comes into effect when such person is successful in the election and the Board then determines that it must withhold the certificate of nomination or election.” [Legal Opinion of David G. Lambert, chief of the civil division of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office.]

The Board just voted 4-0 at 10:13am to deny Mr. Silvera's petition due to his lack of standing to bring the challenge [i.e., he is a Republican bringing a challenge to a candidate of a party of which he is not a member.]

The Board did express appreciation for Mr. Silvera's "public service" in bringing these issues to its attention and advised him to submit further information for consideration relative to whether Mr. Norton may be certified as a public official in the event he wins re-election in November.

The Board will shortly be moving on to the issue of Mr. Norton's primary opponents.

Live from Board of Elections: Challenge to East Cleveland mayor facing legal obstacles,

At this stage it appears there are two problems with Mr. Silvera’s challenge to Mayor Norton. First, East Cleveland’s mayoral primary is partisan. Ohio law provides that only a member of the candidate’s own party may legitimately challenge that candidate’s place on the ballot. Secondly, the county prosecutor has issued an opinion that supports this position. Additionally, it appears that Mayor Norton has filed his delinquent reports.

LIVE FROM COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS!

Parties have arrived early for what may be a pivotal hearing for the City of East Cleveland. As reported here last week, East Cleveland City Council president Joy Jordan is in a struggle to claim a place on the ballot in her city’s October 1 mayoral primary.

Today’s County Board of Elections starts in about ten minutes. Item 5 on the Board’s agenda is “Protest hearing regarding candidate petition filed for the October 1, 2013 East Cleveland Mayoral Primary Election.” This item presumably refers to Jordan’s petitions, which have yet to be certified by the Board, apparently due to her campaign’s failure to properly constitute her Committee of Electors, a requirement that may be unique to East Cleveland.

Present in the public gallery, in attention to Jordan, are a small number of her supporters, including her father, activist dentist Eugene Jordan. Also present is Gerald Silvera, a Republican who has filed complaints with the county and state challenging the ballot eligibility of East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton, who has been delinquent in filing campaign finance reports in several prior campaigns.

East Cleveland law director Ronald Riley is also here, as are a number of city hall regulars.

Former East Cleveland mayor Darryl Pittman has just arrived, along with law partner James Alexander. Pittman has represented City Council in the past in its frequent battles with the Norton administration.

Cleveland city councilman Jeff Johnson has also appeared, perhaps relative to correspondence he has submitted to the Board.

We will update this report as the day proceeds.

9:34

Meeting has just started with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mayor Norton has arrived. 

Five Candidates File for East Cleveland Mayor

Council president working to resolve petition issue, may have to withdraw

The best-known secret in East Cleveland has been that City Council President Joy Jordan would challenge Mayor Gary Norton for the city’s top job this fall. In fact, some wags were betting she might be a shoo-in because the mayor’s repeated failure to comply with campaign finance laws would render him ineligible to run for re-election and might even force him from office before his term expires at the end of the year.

Norton and Jordan did file their mayoral petitions last week, as did two other candidates, Levester Adams and Lateek Rasheen Shabazz. While all four filed on the deadline day, July 3, only Norton’s petitions have been confirmed as valid thus far by the Board of Elections.

A fifth candidate, Vernon Robinson, filed last month. His petitions have also been validated. He, like the others who filed, all entered the Democratic primary. The only person who pulled Republican petitions, Robert L. Heflin III, did not file.

According to the Board of Elections, East Cleveland law provides for a mayoral primary if two or more candidates file for mayor from the same party. At this point, Robinson and Norton would be guaranteed spots on the November ballot unless the petitions of either Jordan, Adams, or Shabazz are verified.

The Real Deal has learned unofficially that at least one critical issue with Jordan’s petitions relates to questions about one of the three electors that each mayoral candidate is required to list as the candidate’s committee. It seems that this elector signed the petitions of multiple candidates and listed two different addresses for his voting residence.

If Jordan is unable to resolve this issue by Tuesday of next week, she runs the risk of being unable to run for re-election to her at large council seat if her mayoral petitions are eventually disqualified.

A call to the Board of Elections for further clarification had not been returned as of this posting.

Council candidates have until August 7 to file petitions to run in the November 5 general election. There is no primary for the nonpartisan council races. Council members whose terms expire December 31 are Jordan, Nathaniel Martin and Chantelle Lewis. Jordan and Martin are at large councilors while Lewis was elected from Ward 3.