On August 20, a Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania disqualified Wieslaw Niemoczynski from the November 3, 2009 ballot as an independent candidate for Monroe County Common Pleas Judge. However, the trial showed massive problems with the state’s list of registered voters, nicknamed SURE. The candidate may appeal. See this story.
The evidence showed that the candidate needed 250 signatures, submitted 331, but was determined to have only 197 valid. 52 signatures were disqualified because of address irregularities. For example, many signatures were collected in a housing development in which residents had been told to use their lot number as their street number, yet their signatures were disqualified because they followed those instructions, instead of using their actual street number (the street numbers are not physically visible on the houses or their curbs).
This is absolutely ridiculous cousidering our situation here in WV. Our petitions require an address as well, but if the address is different from the voter reg list, and as long as it’s in the correct county (all signatures on one sheet must be from same county), and the clerk deems that the signatures match, it’s validated.
The clerks moan that they wish they could use petition addresses to update their voter files, but are prohibited by law. Upwards of one third of voter registration postal addresses have been found to be undeliverable. Voters are supposed to list a physical address if they use a PO Box, but this is overlooked in many cases and lots of voters are listed as registered with only a PO Box (often expired) on file.
And now the WV legislature and SOS wants to go to 100% mail-in voting?!? …pilot program of five counties in the works. http://www.wvgazette.com/News/politics/200907030238 Sheer lunacy!!
Jeff:
It sounds like West – by God- Virginia is about the same as Pennsylvania. One county per sheet. No PO Boxes allowed. The clerks only check for missing information. Things don’t get “picky” until the opposing candidate files a challenge to the petition. 331 signatures would never stand up in Pennsylvania when 250 are required. In Monroe County he could have easily collected 600 signatures. Any registered voter can sign and Monroe County is 18% non D or R. The voter database is now compiled by the state Bureau of Elections but it is still submitted through the county Voter Registration office. We did a mailing in a Special Election for State Rep a few years back using the Voter Registration list and over 15% were returned for bad addresses.
This is why its time to get rid of the signatures on the petition method for ballot access and go with an inexpensive flat ballot access fee.