Seven Summit County candidates, including an Akron school board member, were thrown off the November ballot because of petition problems.The Summit County elections board plans to begin giving candidates more detailed instructions on correctly filling out and circulating petitions in the hopes of cutting down on the number of candidates who are disqualified — sometimes for minor errors.The board voted Tuesday to provide candidates with a list of tips before they circulate their petitions, a checklist they will be asked to sign before they hand in their petitions, and a question-and-answer sheet. The board has given candidates packets in the past, but they didn’t include as in-depth of information.Board members are hoping the tips will help make up for how the board is no longer pre-checking petitions for candidates, at the direction of the Secretary of State’s Office.“It clearly spells out what the rules are,” said Tim Gorbach, the board’s Democratic chairman. “Anything we can do to help candidates out is a plus.”The instructions include tips like making sure to get more than the number of signatures required — candidates are allowed to submit up to three times the threshold. Akron school board member Amy Reeves Grom fell 13 short of the 300 valid signatures she needed to get on the ballot. She submitted 369 signatures.The board disqualified another school board candidate because of insufficient signatures, which left only two candidates for three open seats. This means that one of the five write-in candidates will win a seat on the board. (Belinda Hinton, a sixth write-in candidate, withdrew from the race.)Candidates also can be disqualified for minor errors, like failing to put the date of an election on their petition, said Director Ron Koehler.In a related matter, board members are concerned that candidates might be confused over the filing deadline for the March 6 primary. The deadline — Dec. 7 — will be much earlier than usual. A state law that may now be the subject of a referendum would have moved Ohio’s primary to May and bumped the filing deadline into next year. That law is now on hold pending the verification of referendum signatures. Another state law, which also redrew Ohio’s congressional districts and is being challenged by the Democrats in court, kept the state’s primary in March.Board members are hoping candidates aren’t circulating petitions with a May — rather than a March — date on them. Secretary of State Jon Husted is expected to provide the boards with guidance on what to do if a candidate circulates petitions with a May date, but turns them in by the December filing deadline.The board also discussed whether Summit County should begin updating the signatures it has on file for voters from poll books, rather than relying on original registration cards that might be outdated. Summit is one of the only counties not currently doing this.Gorbach thinks the change might cut down on signature questions that board staff and the board itself have to grapple with.“I think this would only be a benefit,” he said.Alex Arshinkoff, a Republican board member, though, is concerned that this step could invite voter fraud. He said when precincts were smaller, poll workers were familiar with voters and knew if someone who shouldn’t be was trying to cast a ballot. These days, he said, that isn’t the case.“We have got to be careful,” he said.Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Mike Todd pointed out that a voter must present some form of identification before voting at the polls. He said if Arshinkoff is concerned about the types of identification that voters can provide, that is an issue for the state legislature.Wayne Jones, the second Democratic board member, said there isn’t “widespread fraud.”Gorbach asked board employees to consult further with Husted’s office on this issue and investigate how other counties are handling it. Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.