The impact Joyce Kale-Pesta had on Mahoning County elections and politics was remarkable and will remain with us long after her recent death.

I was fortunate to know Kale-Pesta for the past 25 years, covering politics in the Mahoning Valley.

Long before I came to this area, Kale-Pesta served as secretary for the Mahoning County Democratic Party, starting in 1978 under Don Hanni Jr., its longtime chairman.

Kale-Pesta was hired in December 1988 as a clerk at the county board of elections. When I started covering politics in September 2000, I first met Kale-Pesta at the county’s former South Side Annex building, frequently stopping at her desk to chat.

When Michael Sciortino, then the board’s director, left to become county auditor, Kale-Pesta was promoted in 2005 to deputy director.

She served as the board’s director from 2012 until her retirement in November 2021, working as a team with Republican Tom McCabe, who was first director with Kale-Pesta as deputy, and then, when the two switched roles in 2012.

The jobs and salaries are the same, but in Ohio, if the board chairman is a Democrat, then the director has to be a Republican and vice versa.

No matter what I asked of Kale-Pesta, she did it with a smile. This included assignments that had me taking her photos holding unopened ballots, standing by voting machines and talking about election turnout projections.

Kale-Pesta served as Mahoning County’s first female elections board director.

Her institutional knowledge of elections and board operations were so vital that right after she retired as a 33-year employee,

Kale-Pesta was appointed to serve on the board as a member. It’s a position she held until her death last week.

Kale-Pesta told me a number of times she didn’t want to be on the board, but felt an obligation and a duty to serve in order to make sure elections ran smoothly.

When I posted on X about Kale-Pesta’s passing, Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote that she “served the people of Mahoning County for over 3 decades. She loved elections and loved the people of her community and state. Simply put, Joyce exemplified patriotism and true public service, and she will be deeply missed.”

Kale-Pesta was heavily involved in the Mahoning County Democratic Party.

When David Betras resigned as party chairman in May 2019, Kale-Pesta, who was vice chairwoman at the time, was elected to run the party.

Again, Kale-Pesta blazed a trail as the party’s first female chairwoman. She held the position until June 2022.

She returned to vice chairwoman when Chris Anderson became party chairman.

When she died, Kale-Pesta was still the party’s vice chairwoman, a board of elections member as well as the state Democratic Party central committeewoman representing the 33rd District and secretary of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. Retirement hadn’t slowed her down.

Even with all of the political and election accomplishments,

what I best remember about Kale-Pesta had little to do with either.

First, she cared deeply about family and not just her own.

When my two daughters got engaged and their announcements were in the newspaper, Kale-Pesta took the time to cut out and laminate them — and present them to me as keepsakes. During practically every discussion we had, she asked about my family, which grew to include three grandchildren. She was genuinely excited about what was happening in my life and often asked to see photos I have on my phone of my children and grandchildren.

She had that laminator running on a consistent basis.

A column I wrote a long time ago about the importance of voting in odd-year local government elections and other articles I wrote about elections hung for years at the board office at the Oakhill Renaissance Place — laminated, of course — at Kale-Pesta’s insistence.

She greatly valued people’s right to vote and did everything she could to protect it and highlight its value.

The other thing about her that I remember is her love of films, something I share.

I’d come to her office to talk about an election-related issue and TCM would be on the television set across from her desk as background noise. This was the case dozens of times.

I’d often delay our conversation about what I was there for to discuss classic films with her.

It was an honor to know her for as long as I did.

She will be greatly missed.

David Skolnick covers politics for The Vindicator and the Tribune Chronicle.