Traficant’s backers go to bat for him

By David Skolnick (Contact)

A small group of Jim Traficant supporters are responsible for making sure the ex-congressman got his name on the November ballot as an independent candidate for the 17th Congressional District race.

Linda Kovachik and Werner Lange, two of Traficant’s longtime friends and supporters, were relentless in their efforts to have his candidacy certified.

When it was initially determined that Traficant fell 107 valid signatures short on his nominating petitions, Kovachik, Lange and a few others repeatedly reviewed the documents.

While doing so, they discovered the number of signatures Traficant needed was incorrect.

They also found that some signatures ruled invalid were legitimate and should be counted.

That Traficant supporters got that far is impressive especially when you consider they misunderstood two other election laws.

(They incorrectly believed Traficant couldn’t file as a write-in when his candidacy was uncertain and that his initial plan to run in both the 6th and 17th Districts wasn’t permitted.)

After the adjustments, Traficant was 20 valid signatures short.

That didn’t stop his supporters, who contended they found 50 to 80 valid signatures that elections boards had ruled invalid.

Consider the sloppy mistakes made by various elections board officials, that Traficant was so close to the number of signatures needed to be a candidate, and his supporters were questioning the integrity of elections workers who reviewed the nominating petitions.

To keep Traficant off the ballot because he missed the number of signatures needed by 20 would have turned him into more of a martyr than some of his followers already believe him to be.

Conspiracy claims

Traficant is known for his government conspiracy claims as much as his bad toupee, his one-minute speeches, being a convicted felon, and having the distinction of being one of only two U.S. House members to be expelled since the post-Civil War years.

There were enough valid signatures to get Traficant on the ballot.

What I’m suggesting is boards of elections were more flexible with validating Traficant’s signatures than with other candidates because he was so close to the number he needed to be eligible, mistakes had already been made, and they were concerned about the backlash and negative publicity.

At a Monday meeting, the Mahoning County Board of Elections certified 31 signatures ensuring that Traficant will be on the November ballot.

Some of the signatures were easy to validate. Traficant supporters provided sworn statements from those who signed the nominating petitions.

Illegible signatures

But there were others the board accepted that its members rejected in previous years, including partially printed and illegible signatures.

That was done primarily because other county boards of elections in the 17th District did so, said Thomas McCabe, its director.

There were also a couple of questionable signatures that made board member Michael Morley roll his eyes as he validated them.

But he and the other board members still voted “yes.”