Westlake Board of Education Race — Unofficial Results (Top two candidates win seats on board)

Cross leads Marinucci by 23 votes
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Nov. 11, 2009

If Dan Rather was covering the Westlake Board of Education election, he might say that challenger Nate Cross’ lead over incumbent Joe Marinucci is “as thin as turnip soup.”

According to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections unofficial vote count, Cross leads Marinucci, 4,909 to 4,886 votes — a margin of only 23, in the race to fill the second of two seats up for election in the Nov. 3 election.

Incumbent and current school board President Andrea Rocco easily won re-election to another four-year term by receiving 5,875 votes.

The unofficial count released by the Board of Elections does not include overseas and military absentee ballots, nor provisional ballots yet to be ruled on.

According to Kimberly Bartlett, community outreach assistant at the Board of Elections, there are 282 provisional ballots to be decided on in Westlake. And 106 more absentee ballots have yet to be counted, she added.

Bartlett told West Life that an automatic recount takes place when the difference between two candidates’ tallies is less than one-half of 1 percent. The current difference is .234 percent. However, the automatic recount will not be initiated until the elections board certifies the results at its Nov. 24 meeting.

“Officially, we don’t know if this will be an automatic recount,” Bartlett said.

Both Cross and Marinucci said they are waiting for the ballot counting process to play itself out.

“I think it’s premature to be in a celebratory mood at this point,” Cross told West Life. He acknowledged the possibility that Marinucci could still be declared the winner.

“This clearly could go on for another two or three weeks,” Cross said.

Cross congratulated Rocco, who had run with Marinucci against Cross despite the fact that Marinucci is a Democrat and Rocco and Cross are Republicans. The Westlake election is technically nonpartisan.

Cross attributed his strong showing as a challenger to hard work on the campaign trail, right up until the polls closed at 7:30 the evening of Nov. 3.

“I was out four days a week beginning in April getting my name out,” Cross said.

Cross, who serves on the school district committee now deciding on a long-term facilities plan, said he intends to remain involved in the school district regardless of the final outcome of the vote.

Marinucci, who was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2007 and later that year ran unopposed to fill the two remaining years of the unexpired term, said he is not yet conceding.

“I’ve never gone through this before, so I don’t know what to expect,” Marinucci told West Life. “So we’ll just see what happens at this point.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed that I’m 23 votes behind,” he added.

Marinucci said he would hold off commenting further until the election is certified.

Marinucci did join Cross in congratulating Rocco in her victory.

“I think she’s a tremendous asset to the board,” he said of Rocco.