Athens votes for new mayor and council members

Democrats in Athens had reason to celebrate Tuesday night as they maintained the mayoral seat as well as two of the at-large city council seats.Steve Patterson, a Democrat who currently serves as an at-large councilman on Athens City Council, was declared the next mayor of Athens after he ran unopposed.“It’s time to take Athens to the next level,” Patterson said. “You know, I’m really tired of the brain drain, and I’m really looking forward to the brain gain in the city of Athens, trying to keep people here.”Athens City Council had some minor changes. Although all four wards will keep their council members and Democrat Jennifer Cochran won re-election for her at-large seat, the council has two new members: Democrat Peter Kotses and Independent Patrick McGee. Both won at-large city council seats.McGee, the managing attorney for the Center for Student Legal Services, had a platform of putting students first and worked heavily to encourage them to vote.“I had some doubts during the campaign whether I could actually get students to come out and vote,” McGee said after he was declared one of the winners. “I attribute my success to students who taught me how to use social media.”Joan Kraynanski, a Democrat, and Aaron Dauterman, an Ohio University senior running as a Republican, came in fourth and fifth place in the council at-large race.Dauterman expressed disappointment in the result, but he was still hopeful for the future.“I’m very proudof the campaign I ran,” Dauterman said. “I think for the most part I was able to put a bug in people’s ear and start getting them to think. I congratulate the winners of tonight.”At the state level, voters decided the fate of Issues 1, 2 and 3. The results were originally delayed by a statewide order that prevented counties from sharing results for the issues until 9 p.m. Voters in Hamilton County experienced technical glitches at polling stations, so an injunction was filed and Secretary of State Jon Husted allowed the polls to stay open in Hamilton County until 9 p.m. Husted instructed county officials to not release results for the issues until after all the polls were closed.When the results were made available, it came to light that residents of Athens had voted in support of Issue 1 but had rejected Issues 2 and 3.Issue 1 is designed to restrict partisan gerrymandering in the state of Ohio and ended up being approved on a state level. Issue 2 focused on ending citizen-created monopolies. Contrary to Athens voters, Ohio as a whole approved that measure. The final topic at hand was Issue 3, an initiative that would have legalized marijuana but only allowed certain groups to sell it.Athens residents cast a total of 13,420 ballots, a number that represents 35.02 percent of all registered voters.This story was a team project and featured reporting from Kate Ansel, Ellen Bardash, Charles Greenlee, Austin Linfante, Olivia Miltner and Matthew Thigpen.