By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

Matthew Crall will get another four years in the Crawford County prosecutor’s office after a majority of the county chose to have him continue his work.

Crall led his opponent, current Bucyrus City Law Director Rob Ratliff, by a large margin during Tuesday night’s Primary Election. When all was said and done, Crall finished with 68.83 percent (5,196 votes) to Ratliff’s 31.17 percent (2,353 votes).

“It’s very humbling,” Crall said about the win. “You come to work every day and work hard. You hope you’re making a difference and you hope you can communicate that to the public because the goal is to make Crawford County great. I think it shows the community thinks we’re moving in the right direction.”

Crall talked with other longtime elected officials about what it meant to run for another term and he was told the first time through was learning the job. Now, it is time for him to expand upon that knowledge gathered over the last four years.

“I feel I tried to learn everything I can because I’m here to serve Crawford County,” Crall said. “I’m hoping to be able to do more because you’ve got to learn all the things. You try to learn all you can before you start a job. There’s no comparison to what you learn when you’re actually having to do it.”

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Under Crall’s direction, the prosecutor’s office set a record in 399 indictments in 2015, but Crall is hoping that record won’t be broken soon.

“It would be nice if we didn’t have as many cases because that would hopefully mean that there are fewer drugs in our community. That’s our ultimate goal,” Crall said. “I’d rather have half of those indictments and have less drug use because that is really what I’m trying to do.

“Not just me, either,” Crall continued. “I’m blessed to have a great staff that I work with, the court system, law enforcement. It takes all of us working together.”

Crall said he did learn some things and plans on addressing those in the future. One of those issues would be reaching out to other areas of the county, especially after he learned that some people felt he ignored Galion.

“Anytime you have an election, one of the positives is that you hear things that maybe you didn’t think about,” Crall said. “I’m going to try and use those things to better serve our community.”