As he did four years ago, John White wants to run for Youngstown mayor as an independent – and just as in 2021, his eligibility is in question.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections will have a hearing Monday to listen to arguments about the issue and make a determination as to whether White will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The word “and” as well as how it’s interpreted will play a huge factor in the board’s decision.

The board met three days ago to rule on the eligibility of independent candidates and those running in Campbell city elections. The board made decisions on every candidate except White.

White’s eligibility as a candidate has been an issue for months.

Even if the board rules against White, it may not be over. Kenneth D. Myers, White’s attorney, won’t rule out taking legal action.

White said: “The fact that they didn’t rule (Tuesday) is concerning. It’s a simple and understandable standard. The powers that be will stoop to any level to stop me from being on the ballot. I will continue my efforts to represent the people of Youngstown from the mayor’s office. My name on the ballot means I win the election in November.”

At issue is a provision in the Youngstown city charter.

It reads: “The mayor shall be an elector and resident of the city for the five years immediately preceding the mayor’s election, and not less than 30 years of age.”

White registered to vote Feb. 5, 2021, and first voted May 4, 2021.

Youngstown Law Director Lori Shells Simmons wrote in a June 27 legal opinion that White “is disqualified from being an eligible mayoral candidate in the November 2025 election” because he does not have “the requisite five years as an elector.”

Myers says White is eligible and “a common-sense reading of that section is that a person has to be 1) an elector; and 2) a resident of the city for five years. If the framers of the charter had intended for the requirements to be 1) an elector of the city for five years and 2) a resident of the city for five years, they would have written it that way.”

If the Youngstown charter, Myers wrote, is “interpreted to mean that Mr. White must be both a resident for five years and an elector for five years, he meets both criteria because, even though he was not registered to vote for five years, there is no real evidence that he lacked the qualifications provided by law to entitle him to vote. He has been legally eligible to vote for five years; he has merely not actually registered to vote.”

Shells Simmons argues: “The city determines the five-year requirement applies to both elector and resident based upon well-established statutory construction principles. The Writing Center, Georgetown University Law Center, has a Guide to Reading, Interpreting and Applying Statutes, which reads ‘(a)nd’ typically signifies a conjunctive list, meaning each condition in the list must be satisfied. Therefore, hypothetically, the drafters of the charter should have written ‘a resident for five years and an elector’ if the intent was to apply the time limit to only residency.”

The board of elections voted on July 6, 2021, that White wasn’t eligible to be a Youngstown mayoral candidate based on a June 12, 2021, legal opinion from Jeff Limbian, then the city’s law director, based on his interpretation of the charter provision.

At the time, Myers objected and threatened legal action. But the matter was dropped when it was discovered White had voted in the Democratic primary after filing as an independent for mayor.

Voting in a partisan primary after filing as an independent in Ohio disqualifies a candidate from running.

Without White on the Nov. 4 ballot, the Youngstown mayor’s race would be between incumbent Democrat Jamael Tito Brown and independent Derrick McDowell, owner of the Youngstown Flea.

The board of elections voted Tuesday to not certify Aleesha Foster as an independent candidate for mayor because of numerous issues with her nominating petitions.

After I reported May 2 that the elections board and Shells Simmons would again question his eligibility, White was arrested by Liberty police that day on two felony counts for an alleged domestic disturbance with his wife, Youngstown Councilwoman Amber White, I-7th Ward, as a result of the article.

A Trumbull County grand jury declined to indict him on June 13. At the time, White was in the county jail for violating the terms of his bond by allegedly harassing his wife.