YOUNGSTOWN — A judge dismissed a complaint filed by an attorney who claimed the Mahoning County Board of Elections withheld numerous public records related to the Struthers Municipal Court judicial race, ruling the board never denied the request.

In his decision, Mark K. Wiest, a visiting judge sitting in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, ruled that Michael P. Ciccone, the attorney who filed the court complaint, asked the board to inspect the records Nov. 28 and “failed to appear to inspect said records on that date. Accordingly, there are no set of facts that would support his cause of action or entitle him to the requested relief. Further, (Ciccone’s) writ of mandamus is not ripe as there has been no denial of access to an inspection of records.”

Ciccone filed the court complaint Dec. 7 — more than a week after he could have viewed the requested records from the board — contending the board didn’t confirm his request to inspect the records.

A Dec. 4 email to Ciccone — and Jennifer J. Ciccone, the failed Struthers judicial candidate in the Nov. 7 election — from Jacqueline Johnston, an assistant county prosecutor, states virtually all of the numerous requested records were provided in an attached Adobe cloud link.

In that email, Johnston wrote: “Multiple individuals have worked numerous days to gather the requested documents and provide them to my office since the initial request.”

Mahoning County Prosecutor Gina DeGenova said: “This lawsuit was baseless, and I am glad Judge Wiest agreed. There is no dispute that neither Michael nor Jennifer Ciccone showed up to inspect these records on Nov. 28 at noon despite the fact that they personally chose this date and time.”

In dismissing the complaint, Wiest wrote that the elections board “never denied Ciccone’s request for inspection and apparently has responded to a separate request for records” from Jennifer J. Ciccone.

The Ciccones, who aren’t related, requested 14 batches of documents Nov. 22 including absentee voter lists, daily printouts from voting machines in several polling places in the court’s jurisdiction, lists of poll workers and polling location observers, a list of “any election irregularities,” and a list of the voter registration cards of those who voted in that election.

Michael P. Ciccone filed a lawsuit Dec. 1 against the board of elections claiming there “was improper, irregular and illegal conduct” in the judicial race that Jennifer J. Ciccone, a Republican, lost by 10.28%. A week later, the lawsuit was dropped.

Jennifer J. Ciccone, who didn’t file the lawsuit, said she didn’t question the outcome. But Tom McCabe, Mahoning County Republican Party chairman and director of the board of elections, said she called him the day after she lost “claiming it was rigged and there was massive fraud.”

Subsequent to her judicial defeat, Ciccone filed Dec. 20 to run as the Republican nominee in the 58th Ohio House District race. She withdrew six days later and then, on Jan. 7, filed to run as the Republican write-in candidate for the county commissioner seat held by Democrat Anthony Traficanti.

On the same day, Michael P. Ciccone’s wife, Emily, filed to run as the Republican write-in candidate for the 58th House seat.

Michael P. Ciccone filed Dec. 20 to run for the Republican nomination for clerk of courts against David Shaffer, who unsuccessfully sought the seat in 2016.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Dan Dascenzo in the general election. Dascenzo was appointed clerk of courts in September by Democratic central committee members to fill the unexpired term of Tony Vivo, a Democrat who retired from the job.