It’s not that difficult to get on the ballot — though plenty of candidates over the years struggle to qualify.

It’s even easier to get off it.

All a person who qualifies for the ballot needs to do is submit a letter of withdrawal and they’re no longer a candidate.

There’s already been four people who turned in valid nominating petitions to run for seats in the Mahoning Valley and who qualified for the May 5 primary election who then changed their mind and withdrew. This is a relatively small election, if you don’t include the central committee races for both political parties, so four is quite a lot.

All four candidates who withdrew were running in the Republican primary.

Zachary Miller of Youngstown withdrew from the Mahoning County auditor primary because his wife is due this month with their sixth child.

“My first responsibility is to my family,” Miller wrote on Facebook, explaining why he left the contest.

That leaves incumbent Auditor Ralph T. Meacham without a Republican primary opponent. He will face Democrat Dalton Bosze in the Nov. 3 general election.

The least surprising withdrawal is Republican Mark Zetzer of Russell, who again quit the race for the 14th Congressional District.

In 2024, Zetzer said he withdrew from the primary to avoid dividing the opposition vote against U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, whom he seems to really

dislike.

The strategy didn’t work in 2024 when Joyce got 76.7% of the vote in the Republican primary against two challengers. Joyce got 63.4% of the vote in the general election against a Democrat who was convicted before that election of a felony count of filing a false voter registration and started a 30-day jail sentence after the election.

Zetzer said he pulled out of the Republican primary this time to give Niki Frenchko, a former Trumbull County commissioner, a better opportunity to beat Joyce in a one-on-one race.

Zetzer said Frenchko “has more money and organization than I do. So rather than split the opposition vote, I want grassroots Republicans to focus on whoever has the best chance of replacing Joyce.”

Zetzer says he’s “borne the brunt of government overreach for most of my life” with a “persistent loss of freedoms and purchasing power.”

APPEALS COURT RACE

Donald P. Scott of Canfield, a registered Democrat, withdrew from the Republican primary for a seat on the 7th District Court of Appeals.

Scott said getting out of the race is “best in the interest of the community and for party unity. This was not an easy decision, but it is the right one for the community and the Republican Party.”

Scott said he made his decision after talking with Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Tom McCabe and Columbiana County Republican Chairman Dave Johnson.

Perhaps those weren’t the best choices for Scott if he were looking for a reason to stay in the race as both had already endorsed Mahoning County Area Court Judge Molly K. Johnson for the seat.

Johnson will now run unopposed in the Republican primary. No Democrat filed for the seat.

Then there’s Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice, who ran for judicial seats six times as a Democrat. She filed for reelection as a Republican, telling me it “just feels like a good fit for me. There’s been such a shift in our area.”

Rice added that she grew up a Republican and only became a Democrat in 1992 when her now-estranged husband ran for office.

“That was my only connection” to the Democratic Party, she said.

Rice’s decision to switch parties was met with great disappointment by Democrats, who backed her numerous times, and hostility from some Republicans, who believed she was changing because Trumbull has become a red county.

Rice suddenly withdrew from the race, saying it was for “personal reasons. It’s just a good time to retire. I just don’t think it’s anyone’s business. I’m going to pursue other opportunities.”

With Rice out, the two remaining Republican candidates are Mary Ellen Ditchey, Rice’s magistrate, and Devon Stanley, a Liberty township trustee and the county’s deputy clerk of courts who faces a felonious assault charge.

Surprised by Rice’s decision to run as a Republican, Democrats didn’t field a candidate.

Chris Becker, the county’s top assistant prosecutor who unsuccessfully ran in 2024 as a Democrat for a common pleas seat, plans to file as an independent for Rice’s spot.

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