In Pennsylvania, candidates seeking a place on a partisan primary ballot must submit petitions. The Pennsylvania primary this year is May 18. In Pennsylvania, elections officials assume that all petitions that contain, on their face, at least many signatures as are legally required, are valid.

However, any private individual who is a member of the same party may challenge any candidate’s primary ballot petition. The Democratic Party petition for one candidate for State Representative, 175th district, has been challenged. The challenged candidate is Daryl LaFountain. LaFountain has just learned that the challenge to his petition was submitted by fax, and that the fax machine used is the state government-owned fax machine in the district office of the incumbent. The incumbent, Representative Michael O’Brien, is running for re-election. On March 29, LaFountain’s attorney filed a motion with the court that is hearing the challenge to LaFountain’s petition. The motion asks that the challenge be dismissed because the objector is using state government resources for the challenge. It will be interesting to see what happens next. The formal name of the challenge in court is: In re The Nomination Petitions and Papers of Daryl La Fountain, 235 MD 2010.