Candidates challenge opponents' petitions
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak draws criticism for contesting names on a rival's ballot in their U.S. Senate race.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
With the May 18 primary in Pennsylvania two months away, some can didates for U.S. Senate, governor, Congress and the state House got a taste of the competition Wednesday when their ballot petitions were contested.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/12688773078940.xml&coll=1
Listing of challenged and challengers to nomination petitions
via grassrootspa.com
Petition filed to remove Meehan from the primary election ballot
Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010
By PAUL LUCE
pluce@delcotimes.com
Patrick Meehan, the GOP candidate for the 7th Congressional District, should be tossed off the primary election ballot, according to a petition filed Tuesday in Commonwealth Court by four area Republicans.
The petition alleges Meehan’s nomination papers are riddled with fraud, resulting in less than the mandatory 1,000 valid signatures needed for him to remain viable.
Meehan, a former U.S. attorney and Delco District attorney who prosecuted voter fraud cases during his term in the Media Courthouse, called the allegations “a charade” from the campaign of his likely Democratic opponent, state Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-161 of Swarthmore.
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2010/03/18/news/doc4ba19ae815fde759258706.txt
A petition challenge reportedly filed by a Dan Onorato supporter against Democratic gubernatorial rival Joe Hoeffel has been withdrawn, administrators with the Commonwealth Court said Wednesday.
A review of the petition-challenge list in the court’s Harrisburg offices showed Hoeffel’s nomination had been formally challenged Tuesday but removed a day later. The documents showed Hoeffel’s name had been crossed out.
Even if it had remained, the chances of knocking Hoeffel off the ballot appeared slim. The Montgomery County commissioner said he had filed 7,632 signatures from 33 counties – gubernatorial candidates need to file only 100 signatures from 10 counties and 2,000 total.
http://www.politicspa.com/politicspa-challenge-to-hoeffels-nomination-petition-withdrawn/8287/
We were surprised anybody filed a challenge to the nomination petitions of any candidate seeking the nomination for Governor of PA. High stakes indeed.
Nomination petitions for Primary Election for Governor according to information require some specific regulations and requirements for gathering of signatures.
Among those requirements is a 10-county minimum requirement for the gathering of at least 100 of the 2,000 signatures needed to qualify for a spot on nomination ballot in the "Party" Primary.
In the case of candidate Hoeffel's nomination petitions, as reported, an even wider county base of signers was obtained - some 33 counties!
There are 67 counties in PA. so half the counties in PA at least some 7,632 names in 33 counties would have been highlighted by an opponent challenging the petitions for review.
we wonder if our county was included among the Hoeffel 33? don't you? And if you don't why not?
Granted, the process wouldn't have been easy. The Onorato supporter would have had to give specific reason for disqualification of a 'challenged' voter's status to sign the Democrat petition.
Not to besmirch the Hoeffel campaign, but including it among all other campaigns, especially those for Governor, it's likely in a 33-county spread, some signers are ineligible. And it's more than likely in a 67 county review.
Ineligible names remain on voter registration rolls across Pennsylvania, and in fact, it's a no brainer, across states in the United States.
Whether there would have been enough rejections of names on the nomination petititons of Hoeffel to have Hoeffel's name thrown off the Democratic Primary Ballot would have been answered after the process took place.
What would such a review of some 7,000 plus names from a 33-county voter registration database for PA have revealed?
We'll never know now.
How accurate is the state database?
How accurate are each of the voter registration rolls in the 33 counties?
The 67 PA counties?
Unanswered questions year after year.
And with that, who can really trust that the winner (gaining the most votes cast at the precinct and via absentee ballots) is the true winner? A winner in a Primary Election wherein unless there's a special election occuring at the same time, or a Constitutional amendment or a referendum question on the Primary Ballot, independents and Third Party registered voters are excluded from participation.
Such Party challenges to nomination petitions are not rare in PA, that's why the canard to challengers - you're trying to kick me off the ballot and do an end run around the voters - has historically been accepted as politically motivated.
And we find with this withdrawal and with others like it - the same can be said - stopping the challenge once begun on the basis of potentially ineligible or disqualified names on nomination petitions is as politically motivated.
Why not carry out the process and prove the ineligibility of names for whatever reason?
It might reveal some of the same names on the challenged petition are also on the challenger's petition?
The same potentially ineligible names?
It's also rare for anybody to challenge names of voters who've requested and returned absentee ballots, or the residency or eligibility status of voters showing up at the polls.
On behalf of voters in their district of election or appointment, Judges of Election are placed in a position of at the least sanctioning every voter's name who walks in the door and is noted as being on the county voter rolls.
Judges and pollworkers are required to compare signatures of voters at the time of entry and signing the precinct poll book.
How this can be accomplished with any degree of believability becomes another unanswered question when - and it happens - signatures are missing, illegible, or mere scrawls on the county voter registration signature card/digitalized image of a signature block.
Even county commissioners who are aware there are potential ineligibles on the voter listing (for being deceased, or having moved out of the jurisdiction, or signature missing in the county voter registration database) will not challenge a name on the voter registry or use their constitutional ability to review the voter registry.
A voter can also challenge the eligibility status of another registered voter, but this is rare as well.
Net the Truth Online
PoliticsPA: Challenge to Hoeffel’s nomination petition withdrawn
By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
A petition challenge reportedly filed by a Dan Onorato supporter against Democratic gubernatorial rival Joe Hoeffel has been withdrawn, administrators with the Commonwealth Court said Wednesday.
A review of the petition-challenge list in the court’s Harrisburg offices showed Hoeffel’s nomination had been formally challenged Tuesday but removed a day later. The documents showed Hoeffel’s name had been crossed out.
Even if it had remained, the chances of knocking Hoeffel off the ballot appeared slim. The Montgomery County commissioner said he had filed 7,632 signatures from 33 counties – gubernatorial candidates need to file only 100 signatures from 10 counties and 2,000 total.
The Onorato campaign, in a statement, said one of its supporters was simply doing his due diligence to help the Allegheny County Executive’s run for governor.
“Every competent campaign checks their opponents’ petitions and challenges any questionable ones to defend itself,” said spokesman Brian Herman. “Based on the obvious motive and opportunity for one particular candidate to remove the only other candidate who shares his base, one of my supporters filed a legitimate challenge.
http://www.politicspa.com/politicspa-challenge-to-hoeffels-nomination-petition-withdrawn/8287/
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