Democratic and incumbent candidates overwhelmingly won races in Summit County, according to unofficial results from the Summit County Board of Elections.
The results were delayed for several hours Tuesday night. Bill Rich, the chair of the Summit County Board of Elections, said the delay was due to 9,000 absentee ballots being turned in on Tuesday.
In each contested race, Democratic candidates typically won with about 52% to 54% of the vote.
Summit County has almost an equal number of voters who are Democrats and Republicans;14% are registered as Democrats and 14.4% as Republicans. The rest are unaffiliated, according to board of elections data.
In the county prosecutor race, Elliot Kolkovich defeated Republican John Greven with about 54% of the vote.
Kolkovich was appointed prosecutor after longtime prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh retired in January. He focused his campaign on improving the overall work environment of the office and pursuing diversion or rehabilitation for less serious offenses.
He also plans to streamline indictments rather than adding on several different charges that could also apply, he said.
“We’ve really tried to take the philosophy that the indictment is what we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Kolkovich told Ideastream Public Media. “The flip side is that if this is what we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that we're not going to amend a charge or dismiss because we're not stacking charges, we're not putting five on when only one crime is done.”
Greven, a longtime defense attorney, criticized the current prosecutor’s office for bringing in too many charges and over-indicting.
“I am more interested not so much in the quantity of convictions, but in the quality of convictions,” Greven said during the campaign. “I just think more … time, energy, effort, resources need to be put to prosecuting the people who are dangerous.”
Incumbent sheriff Kandy Fatheree defeated Republican challenger Shane Barker with about 54% of the vote, according to unofficial election results.
Tavia Galonski will remain as Summit County Clerk of Courts, after defeating her Republican challenger Katie Reed 52% to 47%.
Both incumbent common pleas judges handily won their races, which are non-partisan. Judge Jennifer Towell secured nearly 70% of the vote to defeat Joseph Darwal, while Judge Susan Baker Ross defeated Susan Steinhauer with 66% of the vote. Judge Kathryn Michael ran unopposed.
Kristen Scalise, the county’s fiscal officer, defeated her Republican challenger Scott Sigel, getting almost 60% of the vote.
County Executive Ilene Shapiro ran unopposed. She will start her third term in January.
Incumbents remain on county council
Summit County Councilmembers John Schmidt and Jeff Wilhite, both Democrats, ran unopposed in the District 2 and District 4 races, respectively.
Incumbent council members won all the contested races on the ballot:
- District 1 Councilmember Rita Darrow, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Yulia Gray with 56% of the vote.
- District 5 Democratic Councilmember Brandon Ford won with 63% of the vote over Republican Cynthia Blake.
- District 6 Democratic Councilmember Christine Weidie Higham got almost 55% of the vote to defeat Republican Nick Rubino.
- Republican Councilmember Bethany McKenney of District 7 defeated Democratic challenger Ryan Shank with 64% of the vote.
- District 8 Councilmember Joe Kacyon, a Republican, defeated Democrat Ryan Shaughnessy with 54% of the vote.
In a close race for District 3, Democrat David Licate defeated Republican Jeremy McIntire by a half of percent with just over 50% of the vote. The incumbent in the district, Republican Gloria Rodgers, lost in the March primary to McIntire.
A county-wide levy and two charter amendments
Summit County voters also considered a tax levy and two proposed charter amendments.
Voters approved the renewal levy for Summit County Children’s Services with nearly 63% of voters supporting the levy and 37% voting against. The six-year levy will not cost taxpayers any additional money.
Voters also approved Issue 41, an amendment to the county charter that tweaks several parts of the hiring process for county employees, particularly addressing nepotism. It adds “aunts and uncles” to the list of relatives ineligible for hiring if they are related to a county elected official, director-level employee or unclassified employee. It also removed a provision that made relatives of classified employees earning more than $80,000 per year ineligible for employment.
The issue passed with 54% voting in support of the charter change and almost 46% voting against it.
A second charter amendment, Issue 42, failed.
The amendment would have required Summit County’s government offices, agencies and board to submit estimated revenues on a yearly, rather than quarterly, basis. Unofficial results show 57% of voters voted against the issue while nearly 43% voted in favor.
