When area voters went to the polls a week ago, some candidates were in for a surprise. Incumbents fell unexpectedly, and others perceived as front-runners ended up nowhere near the front.

But it's safe to say nobody experienced a bigger surprise this election season than a candidate for Mogadore Village Council.

Today we bring you the curious case of Mark Hilbish.

Hilbish lives in a small ranch house near O.H. Somers Elementary School. He has issues with the way things are being handled in his town — police, fire, street paving — so he went to the Summit County Board of Elections and picked up petitions to run for council.

He figured four positions were up for grabs, three for full-term posts and one for an unexpired term.

Originally, Hilbish had designs on one of the full-term positions. But when he discovered seven people were running for those three spots, he decided to play the odds and try for the unexpired term, which runs through 2011.

He returned to the elections board, took out new petitions and made the rounds again, collecting double the 25 signatures required. He turned in his petitions and paid the $30 filing fee, feeling pretty good about things.

He felt even better when he called the board a half-hour after the filing deadline and asked whether anyone else had filed for the same race. No, he was told, you are the only challenger.

He didn't feel nearly as merry the next day, though, when he got a call from the board that went something like this:

Um . . . sorry. Even though we put this race on the preliminary ballot, it doesn't exist. We forgot about that line in Mogadore's charter that says ''the appointee shall fill the entire unexpired term.'' You were running for an opening that wasn't an opening.

Nothing like devoting 15 hours to campaigning for a nonexistent race.

As if that weren't enough, when he called and left a message about retrieving his petitions and filing fee, the call wasn't returned. Still hasn't been.

Hilbish, 54, who worked as a Cuyahoga Falls policeman for 21 years before he had to switch professions after getting a pacemaker, seems like the type of fellow who doesn't rile easily. But this has him a bit stirred up.

''It's kind of strange that, A.) it would happen to begin with, and B.) it would take so long to resolve,'' he says.

''I wouldn't want to be on the elections board and have to call somebody and tell them, 'Yeah, you went out and circulated petitions and got people to sign and support you,' then call and tell you the position you applied for doesn't exist.''

How would you like to be the person who tells him he won't get a refund? Maybe that's why he hasn't been called.

Seriously. The board won't refund his $30 filing fee.

Director Marijean Donofrio says the law won't allow it. She cites the Ohio Revised Code's section on filing fees — 3513.10 (F)(1), for those of you scoring at home — which reads, ''In no case shall a fee paid under this section be returned to a candidate.''

But surely this is not the kind of situation lawmakers had in mind.

Just to make sure, Donofrio says, the board checked with the prosecutor's office, and the prosecutor came to the same conclusion. No refund.

She said the board probably will discuss the prosecutor's opinion at its next meeting.

After initially attributing the whole mess to a ''staffing error on our part,'' Donofrio later retracted that comment and said the blame should be placed at the feet of the candidate.

''It's just my opinion that when an individual decides to become a candidate, I think they need to know everything they need to know about their petitions, their charters or state law.''

Shouldn't someone at the elections board know that, too? I mean, if I walked in and said I wanted to run for Emperor of Summit County, would they hand me petitions?

''But that would be an obvious job,'' she responds. ''The village of Mogadore council — we look up the office and see what petition goes with that office.

''I mean, I sympathize with him. If I had paid my $30 and there wasn't a seat to be had, I would probably want my money back, too.''

Well, yeah!

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Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.