Council Candidate, Rejected from Ballot, to Run as Write-In

Ward 4 Stow City Council representative Mary Bednar plans to seek re-election as a write-in candidate this November after being removed from the ballot by the Summit County Board of Elections.

The board of elections ruled recently that Bednar could not appear on the ballot because two campaign checks she wrote to pay her filing fees did not clear and her fees were not paid before the June 12 filing deadline, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

The elections board disqualified Bednar July 15 after receiving a formal challenge to Bednar’s candidacy, based on the lateness of her filing payments, from former Ward 4 councilman Bob Adaska, who also is running this fall for the council seat.

Bednar said removing her from the ballot takes the option of choice away from Stow voters, the Beacon Journal reported.

“I'm really disappointed that someone would not want to give people the choice of representation,” Bednar told the Stow Sentry.

The 17-year Stow resident is an educational consultant for Cuyahoga Falls City Schools. She previously served two terms as Stow’s Ward 4 representative from 2006 to 2010.

Bednar told the Sentry she was unaware the campaign account she used to pay her filing fees had been closed by the bank due to inactivity.

A total 11 candidates filed their petitions June 12 with the election board seeking the seven seats on Stow council.