Two Mahoning Valley political candidates who lost their elections — one by 48.8% and the other by 10.28% — are raising questions about the outcomes.

By disputing the elections’ validity, despite double-digit defeats, the local candidates are reflecting what we’ve seen nationwide since Donald Trump filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits and used other failed tactics after losing the 2020 presidential election.

While every candidate has the right to challenge election outcomes to their fullest extent, these attempts seem like efforts to shake trust in the process.

In one case, Geo Kuriatnyk, who lost the Niles mayoral race by 48.8%, filed for a recount from the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

Niles Mayor Steven Mientkiewicz, a Democrat, received 3,763 votes to 1,295 for Kuriatnyk. Mientkiewicz captured 74.4% of the vote to 25.6% for Kuriatnyk.

The request for the recount was denied because Kuriatnyk didn’t file it on a timely basis.

Kuriatnyk acknowledged he wasn’t going to win on a recount, but he wanted to make sure every vote had been counted.

Kuriatnyk also said he wanted to see where he did well in the city for a future run for elected office.

First, he got 25.6% of the vote so it’s fair to say he didn’t do well anywhere.

Second, he simply could ask the board for a ward breakdown of his race.

Mientkiewicz said: “It’s Donald Trump Jr. It’s right out of the Donald Trump playbook. Tell the big lie, offer nothing, bring nothing to the table so you’re going to whine and cry.”

The other matter is far more serious — a complaint in the 7th District Court of Appeals filed by Michael P. Ciccone on behalf of 28 voters who supported Jennifer J. Ciccone, no relation to the attorney, in the Struthers Municipal Court race. The 28 voters contend there “was improper, irregular and illegal conduct” in that particular race by the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

James Melone, a county common pleas court magistrate, got 7,390 votes in that race compared with 6,012 for Ciccone. That’s a 10.28% margin of victory. It’s not 48.8%, but it is decisive.

Since losing, the failed candidate has questioned the outcome and filed a lengthy records request with the board of elections.

Without giving details, the complaint contends the board of elections failed to properly train those involved with the election, not all ballots were counted, ballots were improperly handled, “non-eligible voters” were allowed to vote, ballots for Ciccone were illegally rejected, and some ballots for Ciccone were counted for Melone.

It claims Melone “did not receive the majority of votes cast in the election,” seeks to nullify the results and have the seat vacant when Melone is to take office Jan. 1. The likely thinking is with a vacancy, Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, would again appoint Ciccone, also a Republican, to the seat until an election could be held.

Two of the four sitting appeals court judges — Republican Mark A. Hanni and Democrat David D’Apolito — have recused themselves from the case “due to conflicts.”

With only two other judges on the appeals court and the need for a three-member panel, a visiting judge must be appointed.

The court complaint drew sharp and pointed criticism at the failed candidate and the attorney who filed the matter from Tom McCabe, the elections board director and chairman of the county Republican Party, and David Betras, the board’s chairman and former head of the county Democratic Party.

Betras said Ciccone is getting her election-denial cues from Trump, and “I’m repulsed that she would claim we don’t run clean elections. She’s putting into the veins of Mahoning County that we’re not following the law.”

McCabe, who sent a letter to DeWine asking that Ciccone be appointed before the election, said: “In my 25 years here, I’ve never seen a candidate lose by as much as she did and still contest the election. Looking at her complaint, this filing is one of the worst — if not the worst — I’ve ever seen when it comes to election contests.”

Betras, a lawyer, said of the attorney who filed the complaint: “Lawyers should watch when they make spurious claims. He’s lying to the court. He should know what happens to other lawyers who make false claims.”