Jan 2, 2015 3 min read

Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr confirmed Friday afternoon there should be an election this year for the office of judge that will be vacated Monday, the day President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca’s retirement takes effect.

The date of her retirement, Jan. 5, left questions if it was two days shy of the 10-month vacancy before a general election required for Supreme Court justices, judges and justices of the peace as noted in the state Constitution. This year, the general election is Nov. 3. If candidates were not permitted to file for the office and the governor chose not to appoint someone, the vacancy could last until January 2018.

Spahr said he had a revelation when contemplating the matter, recalling judges intending to file for retention must do so no later than the first Monday in January, which, this year, is Jan. 5.

“If a judge didn’t file for retention, that office would have to appear on the ballot,” Spahr said Friday. “How could the law treat one judicial candidate differently than another?”

If either Gov. Tom Corbett or his successor, Tom Wolf, appointed someone to the Washington County bench, the appointment would run until the end of 2017, and the office would appear on the ballot that year. The appointee would have to be confirmed by the state Senate.

Barring a judicial appointment, candidates can circulate and file nominating petitions Feb. 17 through the March 10 deadline.

Spahr said he also pondered, “When judges set a time line in court, they usually say days. In the Constitution, they didn’t say days, they said 10 months. What constitutes a month?” At one point, he thought the state attorney general’s office would have to interpret the law.

Spahr said clearing up the matter was Jonathan Marks, commissioner of the state’s Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation, who coordinates statewide implementation of the Election Code.

Marks returned a phone call late Friday afternoon to the Washington County elections office, and Spahr said he learned voters will have an opportunity to fill the vacancy this year by electing a candidate.

“The state has had to visit this issue in the past,” Spahr said, expecting an email from Marks by Monday.

Though O’Dell Seneca remained president judge, she was relieved of her administrative duties Nov. 5 when Allegheny County Senior Judge Joseph James was appointed interim administrator.

In a letter addressed to Corbett, O’Dell Seneca did not provide a reason for her retirement.

“It has been a great privilege to serve the citizens of our commonwealth not only as a state trial judge for 23 years, but also to have served a four-year term on the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline,” O’Dell Seneca said in her letter.