YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Board of Elections certified five candidates — three Republicans and two Democrats — seeking to fill Bill Johnson’s unexpired term in the U.S. House to the special March 19 primary ballot.

The board in Mahoning, the 6th Congressional District’s most-populous county, voted Wednesday in favor of validating the petitions.

The same five names will appear twice on March 19 primary ballots — for the unexpired term and for the full two-year term, which starts in January 2025.

Johnson, a Republican, resigned Sunday, to become Youngstown State University president.

To get the seat filled as quickly as possible and to avoid four elections in one year, Gov. Mike DeWine called for the special primary with a condensed filing and certification process and then a June 11 special general election. The filing deadline for the primary was last Friday with certification coming five days later.

“It was a really good compromise to do it this way because there could have been four elections,” Tom McCabe, director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections and the county’s Republican Party chairman, said. “We’re thankful it was three.”

The Republicans who will appear twice on the primary ballot are state Sen. Michael Rulli of Salem, state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus of Paris Township and Rick Tsai of East Palestine.

The Democrats are Michael L. Kripchak of Youngstown and Rylan Z. Finzer of Bedford Heights.

The district has an 18% advantage for Republicans based on voting trends in partisan statewide elections over the past decade. The seat is considered a safe one for Republicans.

Those who want to run as independents for both the unexpired term and the full two-year term have until March 18 — the day before the primary — to file nominating petitions.

The special general election is June 11. With certification of the results usually taking a couple of weeks, the 6th District will be without a representative for about five months.

McCabe said he expects “low turnout” for the June 11 election as it will be the only race on the ballot and the Republican primary will likely decide the winner.

So far there hasn’t been an issue with finding poll workers for the June 11 special general election in Mahoning County, McCabe said.

“Most people are good for June,” he said. “Actually we’re better for June than March because of the snowbirds who work at the polling locations aren’t back home by March.”

The 6th Congressional District includes all of Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison, Monroe, Noble and Washington counties and portions of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

In the 2022 election, 30.4% of the votes came from Mahoning with 16.3% from Stark and 12.6% from Columbiana.

With Johnson’s resignation, the Republican majority over Democrats in the U.S. House is 219-213.