Toledo City Councilman George Sarantou dropped his contest of election challenge Feb. 3

In a statement, Sarantou said he decided to stop his challenge of the November Lucas County Commissioner election because it was the right thing for the community.

Sarantou said he had initiated the contest of election to have a fair and impartial review of the election and sought the provisional ballots for review.

Sarantou

“I have accomplished what I set out to from the beginning. I have been permitted to review the ballots. They show what I suspected –The Board counted many ballots that should not have been counted and, in addition, there are hundreds of envelopes that did not comply with the law. We have reviewed all of the provisional envelopes, it is apparent that the system needs to be improved to ensure that provisional balloting does not undermine the integrity and reliability of our elections.

“I believe in my heart that I won this election. But given the law on the subject, the only way I could show that in court would be to call individual voters to ask them how they voted, and I respect the rights of voters to vote privately, which is a hallmark of our democracy.

If I didn’t choose that path, all I would accomplish by going forward would be to have the election vacated. In that event, Ms. Contrada would have been appointed County Commissioner by the Lucas County Democratic Party, because the law does not permit the Judge to order a new election.

“While I think the public is entitled to know about its elections, I do not want to drag the community through a trial and contribute to the cynicism of the public about the political process, only to have that hollow result.”

Concluding his statement Sarantou wished Carol Contrada good luck in her role as commissioner.

Tags: Carol Contrada, George Sarantou, Lucas County Board of Elections

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Breaking News, Politics.
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