Mar 14, 2017 5 min read

North Strabane Supervisors Chairman Brian Spicer had nine signatures on his nominating petition when a fellow Democrat apparently took it to a notary to certify the signatures’ validity.

But six more people signed the petition the next day, and Rita Polansky, a fellow township Democrat, argues in a petition filed Monday in Washington County Court Spicer is legally one name short of the 10 he needs to appear on the ballot in the May 16 primary.

“This is more typical … sloppiness from the Democrats in North Strabane,” said attorney Sean Logue, who represents Polansky.

The deadline to ask the court to remove candidates’ names from the primary ballot was Tuesday. Spicer is one of five candidates for offices in Washington County who face challenges to their nominating petitions, and a judge dismissed a bid to block two others’ names from appearing on a primary ballot in a local race.

No such challenges had been filed to any races in Greene County as of late Tuesday.

Paperwork candidates must file to appear on the primary ballot includes a notarized affidavit in which a “circulator” swears to the validity of the signatures. Albert Paul, Spicer’s circulator, signed the affidavit Feb. 15 – the same date as the first nine people signed the petition. The last six signatures on the petition are dated the following day.

“These six additional signatures were not sworn to, as the affidavit was already notarized,” according to Polansky’s petition.

Spicer didn’t answer an email seeking comment Tuesday.

A hearing on Polansky’s petition is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday before Senior Judge John C. Reed.

Monongahela Republican David Criss, who is looking to mount a bid to unseat Sheriff Sam Romano, a Democrat, faces an objection to the validity of dozens of signatures on his nominating petition.

Shawn Trapuzzano, a Republican from South Strabane Township, argues in a petition filed Tuesday 51 of the 276 signatures on Criss’s nominating paperwork were invalid because of alleged discrepancies that included their registration status and the absence of any place of residence of the voters. A candidate for sheriff needs 250 signatures to appear on the ballot.

Reed also will hold a hearing at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday on a two-pronged attack by District Judge Jay Weller and his wife, Christine, against his sole rival in his bid to hold on to his seat for a fifth six-year term.

Judicial candidates can cross-file to appear on both major-party ballots.

Christine Weller, a Republican, objected to 11 of the 107 signatures on state constable Lawrence Fowler’s GOP nominating petition.

Eight of the signatures are from people she said are not registered as Republicans.

Candidates for district judge need 100 signatures for each party nominating petition.

State law allows people to sign only one candidate’s petition for a given office, and Weller claims Fowler’s nominating petition improperly includes signatures of three people who’d already signed her husband’s.

Jay Weller, a Democrat who has cross-filed to appear on the GOP ballot, contests 15 of the 102 signatures Fowler gathered for his Democratic nominating petition – 13 because they allegedly belong to people who aren’t registered as Democrats, one because the person signed Wellers’s nominating petition before Fowler’s and one because the signer’s name isn’t legible.

Jacob Machel – a GOP candidate for the seat District Judge James Ellis will vacate when he retires at the end of the year – is also seeking to have rival Ryan Welsch’s name removed from the primary ballot.

Along with alleging some of the signatures on Welsch’s nominating petitions are defective, Machel, of Peters Township, argues his opponent hasn’t lived in the magisterial district long enough to satify the one-year residency requirement in time for the Nov. 7 election. As of that day last year, Welsch, whose elections paperwork lists a Peters Township address, allegedly resided at a house in Mt. Lebanon Township. He was registered to vote in Allegheny County until Dec. 7, according to Machel’s petition.

Machel also alleges the circulator on four of the six nominating petitions submitted for Welsch listed an address that differs from the one on the circulator’s voter registration.

On Tuesday, Reed dismissed an attempt by a Democratic candidate for Union Township supervisor to have two would-be GOP rivals’ names stricken from the primary ballot.

Former supervisor Stephen Parish, a Democrat, argued Supervisor Heather Daerr, who is seeking re-election, and Richard Lawson, another candidate, hadn’t filed ethics forms with the township as of March 8, the day after the deadline.

Citing case law, Frank Arcuri, the attorney representing Daerr and Lawson, argued at the hearing Parish didn’t have standing to challenge his clients’ nominating petitions because Parish isn’t a member of their party.

Parish’s attorney, Chris Furman, argued his client did have the right to challenge the candidates under the ethics law – different from challenging the validity of their nominating petitions.

Bob Krut, a Buffalo Township auditor, has asked the court to strike supervisors Chairman Jack Levy’s name from the primary ballot. Krut argues Levy, a Democrat, hadn’t filed an ethics form with the township as of March 8.

A hearing on Krut’s petition is set for 11 a.m. Wednesday before Reed.