Running for local elected office, such as township trustee or for a seat on the board of education, isn’t easy. It’s particularly challenging if you’ve never done it before.

So it wasn’t surprising that 22 candidates who turned in nominating petitions in Mahoning County and 12 in Trumbull County didn’t qualify for the ballot because of various problems with properly completing those documents.

However, what is surprising is that of 34 who didn’t qualify, 11 were incumbents.

The front page of each nominating petition has a statement of candidacy at the top and a nominating statement beneath that. Both have blank lines (with what information is supposed to be listed below them) for candidates to fill out before they collect signatures.

Between the two counties, 11 people weren’t certified because they didn’t fill out one or the other at all.

Also, each person who circulates petitions has to fill out a circulator statement on the back page of nominating petitions after they are done. Again, it’s got blank lines with information below it to help candidates properly fill them out.

Ten candidates in the two counties failed to properly fill out that information at all.

David Betras, Mahoning board chairman, was visibly disappointed with the number of candidates he was forced to not certify to the Nov. 7 ballot for what are considered “fatal flaws.”

“It just amazes me that we have this many people who want to participate in our government; the bar’s really low, and they can’t do it,” he said.

An issue that always makes me wonder what people are thinking is those who don’t qualify for the ballot because they don’t have enough valid signatures.

For some positions, a candidate needs only 25 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Candidates can get lists of registered voters and their addresses from their board of elections.

Yet, year after year, I see people who file petitions with 25 or 26 signatures when they need 25 valid to qualify and don’t meet the requirement.

Under state law, a candidate can get up to three times the minimum number of signatures to get on the ballot.

Incumbent Craig Beach Councilwoman Linda Bryant needed only 10 valid signature. She submitted a petition with 12 signatures, and only seven were ruled valid.

Amy Russell, who wanted to run for Weathersfield school board, needed 25 valid signatures. She collected 28 and 24 were determined to be valid. In her case, she would have been tossed anyway because she dated her statement of candidacy after starting to collect signatures.

One trend I saw this year that led to some not making the ballot was going online and printing nominating petitions ä the wrong ones in a few cases ä rather than picking them up at the board of elections.

Unfortunately, getting petitions at the board of elections does not guarantee anything.

The owner of the Peace Pub, 1129 Parkman Road NW, in Warren City Precinct 7C learned that the hard way.

A Trumbull County Board of Elections employee gave the wrong petition for a Sunday liquor option to those representing the bar.

The petition was to permit Sunday liquor sales in the entire precinct, rather than just the bar, and the board employee also gave the bar a required affidavit form for only the bar.

Because the petition and affidavit didn’t match, the board of elections rejected the liquor option.

The decision was made after consulting with the county prosecutor’s office and Ohio Secretary of State’s Office to see if there was an option to certify.

Between those who were not certified because of problems with petitions and a lack of candidates for several other seats, there are a number of elected positions on the Nov. 7 ballot that either have no filings or not enough people for the available seats.

It’s possible there will be several people filing by Monday’s deadline to run as write-in candidates for those spots.

Remember, only those who officially file as write-in candidates are eligible for votes. Votes for other people ä real or otherwise ä or your pet or favorite cartoon character are not counted, regardless of how much support they receive.