On April 6, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court upheld a law that does not permit a non-member of a party to circulate a petition to place a candidate on a primary ballot, even when the petitioner is the candidate! In re Nomination Petition of Kimberly Wheeler, 293 C.D. 2023. Pennsylvania allows a candidate for School Director to appear on the primary ballots of more than one party. In other words, Pennsylvania permits fusion for School Director elections. The candidate, running for that office in Souderton, therefore circulated her own petition to get on the Democratic primary ballot, as well as the Republican primary ballot. She is a registered Republican. Her petition to be on the Democratic ballot was invalidated on the grounds that she cannot circulate her own Democratic petition because she is a Republican. So although she had enough signatures for her Democratic petition, the petition was invalid because of her own personal party membership.
The Court said the burden on her was slight, because she only needed ten signatures to be on the Democratic ballot, and she should have had a registered Democrat circulate her Democratic petition. Thanks to Adam Bonin for the link.
The court is right. Fusion is hot garbage!
As someone who’s petitioned for minor party candidates who needed tens of thousands of signatures to get on the ballot, I have little sympathy for a Republican candidate who couldn’t even handle organizing the ten additional signatures needed to be a fusion candidate with the Democrats. For once, the court is right about a ballot access burden being slight.
EQUAL [NOT *SLIGHT*] IN 14-1 AMDT
The is absolutely ridiculous, and I think this happened because a bad argument was made in the case against the ban on out of state petition circulators for major party primary petitions. The argument made was that party members from other states want to go to Pennsylvania to help their fellow party members get on the ballot for the primaries. The argument which should have been made is that candidates in Pennsylvania want the ability to bring in petition circulators from outside of PA, both volunteer and paid, to help them get on primary ballot, and that petition circulators outside of PA want to be able to work in PA. Reality is that most paid petition citculators are not members of any political party and are just out for money.
It should not matter what political party the petition circulator is in or whether or not the petition circulators is a member of a party or a registered voter.
I agree with Andy. I’ve learned a bit about petitioning from this website and its commenters.
How could a “trivial burden” support the State’s interest? Trivialities support nothing. The conservative approach would be to not restrict.
Would you say that PA has reasonable signature requirements? 2,000 for governor for a partisan candidate doesn’t sound so bad to me. What about the 2% requirement for unaffilitated candidates?
https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_requirements_for_political_candidates_in_Pennsylvania
Ha, the Ballotpedia page even quotes Richard!
Pennsylvania petitions for statewide independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties is exactly 5,000. The district petitions are 2% of the winner’s vote, so they are slightly more than 1% of the last total vote cast.
Jim and Joshua are right!
This should have been left up to the party itself.
Eliminate fusion and it eliminates this “problem”.
Eliminate segregated partisan primaries and the problem is eliminated.
If the Democrat or Republican or Dreempoublicracant clubs want to support a particular school board candidate they can print flyers, yard signs, hold torchlight rallies, or block walk in support.
Speaking as a Klansman, I love the idea of torchlight rallies.
Happy birthday to Andy Gonzalez, a Pennsylvania resident. He’s now 51, and thus no longer 50. He is forever 5150 though. Jesus is his friend and loves him, even if he no longer gets on his knees for Jesus.
Feliz Compleanos Andy Gonzalez!
Isn’t his former novio Paul Frankel about to be 51 also?
Si, on May 20. Their former cucaracha motel, the “independent” political report, will turn 15 years old on that same day, which is 51 with the numbers switched around. Ay carumba!
Happy birthday to the two amigos!
But not to the “independent” political report now better known as commie crap censored by Phillies (cccp).
Is Frankel also from Pennsylvania?
I’m pretty sure he is actually from New York or Massachusetts.
I thought he was from Mongolia …
Frankel is from New York, but he moved to the Sinai. He is a mongoloid meaning he has a birth defect , not from Mongolia which is probably where you got confused. He was born and raised in Manhattan. His parents are Russian jews.
Andy Gonzalez is an illegal Mexicant who lives in Camp Hill PA near Harrisburg.
George from Philly is actually from Montgomery County which is in the Philadelphia area.
Before he moved to the Sinai Frankel moved to northeast Philadelphia. So all three of these homosexuals have a Pennsylvania connection.
Weren’t all three of them extras in the 1993 propaganda movie Philadelphia?
Yes, even though they were not in the credits, it has been confirmed by multiple sources that George from Philly, Andy Gonzalez, and Paul Frankel all worked as extras on the movie Philadelphia. It is not known whether they were known to each other prior to that.
It’s likely that they frequented the same bathhouses and nightclubs.
Is it true that Andy Gonzalez tried to join the Klan, even though they don’t allow homosexuals or Mexicants and he is both of those things?
Si, the pendejo cabron showed up to a cross lighting thinking they would let him join. He is lucky he did not get lynched. Instead they just laughed at him and made him leave.
If the person above is referring to the Paul Frankel who used to be involved in the Libertarian Party, and who used to work as a paid petition circulator, he was born in Siberia, in what at the time was part of the USSR, and is now part of Russia.
I have not seen or spoken to him since June of 2019.
I do not know who Andy Gonzalez is, but 5150 is the police code in California for a person who is mentally disturbed, and it is also the title of a great song and album from the band Van Halen, which was released in 1986, and was their 7th studio album, and their first after David Lee Roth left the band and was replaced by Sammy Hagar on lead vocals.
Eddie Van Halen sadly passed away from cancer in 2020, and the band is no more. Rest in Peace, Eddie Van Halen.
5150
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=weTFt52oRTc&pp=ygUTNTE1MCB2YW4gaGFsZW4gbGl2ZQ%3D%3D
Hey vato, i told you that story about the clan in competence, no necessito upbring it hear.
I guess this Andy is not Andy Gonzalez. Unless he is. They’re both 5150 for sure. And Paul Franken is not from Siberia. His parents are. I have solid sources on this. He was born at Bellevue hospital in Manhattan NY USA. Later he moved to northeast Philadelphia PA. Even more recently he moved to Taba in the Sinai, which is right next to Eilat at the southern tip of Israel south of the Negev desert.
A 5150 hold is up to 72 hours. There are various other holds for longer periods of time, up to 5350 which is indefinite.
All three of them (George, Andy, and Paul) qualify for any of the holds, from 5150 all the way up to 5350.
What exactly is the nature of the friendship between George from Philly and Tony from Long Island?
Are all these people communists?
I’m not sure, but it seems highly likely.
For some weird reason a bunch of communists like to pretend to be libertarians. For a number of years until last year they even formed the leadership of the party and the last three presidential tickets in a row.
Gonzalez, Phillies, and Frankel should all be ashamed of themselves
I forgot to mention Tony from Long Island. Him too!
As far as I know, George Phillies lives in or near Worcester, Massachusetts.
George from Philly used to live up there for work. But I think I heard he moved back home to Philly so he could go to more Phillies games in person, and not just on his visits home or when they played the Red Sox.
Did he stay with Tony from Long Island on the way back down from Worcester to Philly?
Word has it they both moved to the Philly burbs together. They are volunteering at a disadvantaged kids shelter and taking the kids out to Phillies games, especially when the Yankees, Mets, or Red Sox are in town.
Andy, George, Paul, and Tony…a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with America today.
David Lee Roth was the only Van Halen singer who was any good.
I agree. Sammy Hagar…not half the singer as David Lee Roth.
Van Halen was just coasting without Roth. If they hadn’t already been famous they would have never become big that way.
Imagine Andy, George, Paul, and Tony trying to be a rock band. It would be the worst, lamest, crappiest rock band in history.
They maybe could make money getting people to pay them to stop playing and go away?