Recordpub.com - Judge will not halt early votes in Portage McClafferty suit for mayor bid continues

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

It appears Streetsboro’s youngest candidate to seek the mayor’s office can’t stop early voting in Portage County, but he still may have a shot at becoming the city’s highest elected official.

A federal court judge issued a ruling on a motion late Wednesday afternoon in Brett McClafferty’s case against the city, in which he is fighting a 2007 charter amendment that set the minimum age for mayor and council members at 23.

Judge Sara Lioi ruled against a preliminary injunction motion the 21-year-old had filed to try and stop early voting in Portage County for the Nov. 3 election. The crux of McClafferty’s overall case seeks a decision that would overrule the charter amendment and place him on the ballot as a mayoral candidate.

Streetsboro’s acting mayor, Art Scott, said he intends to continue the defense of the charter’s age limit as the case continues beyond Wednesday’s ruling.

“We won first round,” Scott said.

But McClafferty may attempt to file a temporary restraining order or an emergency appeal to the Akron federal court ruling with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to still try and stop early voting. As the deadline nears — with just 33 days until election day — McClafferty said he would have to consult with his attorney before deciding to take the costly action of appealing Wednesday’s ruling to the nation’s second-highest court.

“Obviously I’m disappointed,” McClafferty said.

Absentee voting for the election began Tuesday with both paper and electronic ballots on which McClafferty is not listed as a candidate.

Assistant Portage County Prosecutor Denise Smith, who is representing the county in the case, said absentee ballots will continue to be mailed out and made available to voters at the Portage County Board of Elections.

“It was a decision on the motion for preliminary injunction, and that motion was denied,” Smith said. “So (McClafferty’s) request to stop the election was denied.”

Lois Enlow, deputy director of the elections board, said Wednesday’s ruling has no immediate impact on the election.

“We’ve already started voting, that’s the bottom line,” she said. “We’ll just continue with our voting and continue as we had planned.”

For now, McClafferty’s overall case seeking to overrule the age limit of 23 for mayoral and council office holders continues in federal court.

McClafferty said an appeal is likely if he loses his bid to run for mayor due to the charter requirement.

18.	Posted by Uknown October 4, 2009
	"A charter amendment saying that you must be 83 would never pass through the voters." It might or it might not. Correct? In other words, it's possible. Applying your "logic" to a possible state of affairs produces an absurd result. Your logic is faulty, amigo. You are the one who is being absurd. Or are you merely suggesting that it's OK for Streetsboro to discriminate against a certain age group, because it can, and did? Now, who's to say that if the powers that be are capable of 1) taking an intense personal dislike to an ambitious 21 year old, 2) arguing that 21 year olds are too immature to fulfill the office of mayor, and 3) working to ban any and all 21 year olds from holding that office, that they might not also be capable of 1) taking an intense personal dislike to a cranky 83 year old, 2) arguing that 83 year olds are too cranky to fulfill the office of mayor, and 3) working to ban any and all 83 year olds from holding that office? The unscrupulous powers that be might even couple the "under 83" age requirement with a leadoff provision to the effect that persons with Alzheimer's disease or senile dementia shall be ineligible for public office.

13.	Posted by Uknown October 3, 2009
	AdamD, The age requirements stated in the Constitution are for the FEDERAL offices of President (35), Senator (30), and Member of the House of Representatives (25). They are not for Mayor of STREETSBORO (currently 23; previously 18). Neither you nor the judge (according to you) seem very coherent. For one thing, if reasoning were unnecessary to the law, the best lawyer would be the one who could bang his head longest and loudest against the courtroom wall, without knocking the life out of himself or messing up his suit. Keep in mind that McClafferty's is a TEST CASE and that there are other questions of rights involved. Let's revisit these questions the next time there is a McClafferty story in this newspaper.

11.	Posted by Uknown October 3, 2009
	AdamD, No, you're missing the point. The Constitution is silent on age restrictions for state, county and local offices. It doesn't follow that any such restriction for any office anywhere is allowed. For instance, a restriction such as Streetsboro's may be found to be arbitrary (lacking a rational basis) or discriminatory (violating the rights of a class or an individual). "States and cities have always been allowed govern themselves." No, you're wrong again. States and cities may govern themselves CONSISTENT with higher laws and authorities. Please go back to the comments of some of the earlier McClafferty articles, in which other people did a nice job laying out some of the issues involved. You were probably busy accusing people of being "Brett's little friends" and missed it.