Candidate off ballot for not using full name Right after striking William W. Brown III from the Republican primary ballot because he didn't include a middle initial and a Roman numeral after his name, Judge Joseph James told the South Fayette man not to give up, to try next time.
'You know what, your honor? I seriously doubt that it's worth it,' Mr. Brown said yesterday. 'It's just a local election, for God's sakes. I don't know why anybody would go to the trouble.'
The trouble Mr. Brown went to consisted of two days missing work so he could wait through a record series of hearings in which candidates and their proxies attempted to bump potential rivals off the ballot on a range of technicalities. In some cases, signatures on the petitions turned out to be questionable. In other cases, ethics forms weren't filed on time.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Candidate off ballot for not using full name
This is absurd. I dare not say much else, as I'll be asking for the court to rule in my favor shortly. But, others out in the blog world, feel free to go for it.
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Candidate off ballot for not using full name
Friday, March 23, 2007
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Right after striking William W. Brown III from the Republican primary ballot because he didn't include a middle initial and a Roman numeral after his name, Judge Joseph James told the South Fayette man not to give up, to try next time.
"You know what, your honor? I seriously doubt that it's worth it," Mr. Brown said yesterday. "It's just a local election, for God's sakes. I don't know why anybody would go to the trouble."
The trouble Mr. Brown went to consisted of two days missing work so he could wait through a record series of hearings in which candidates and their proxies attempted to bump potential rivals off the ballot on a range of technicalities. In some cases, signatures on the petitions turned out to be questionable. In other cases, ethics forms weren't filed on time.
In the case of William Brown, it was that two people by the same name live in his home. There's William W. Brown III, who wanted to run for township commissioner in South Fayette, and his son, William W. Brown IV, who is a student at Penn State.
Neighbors came over in February, and the requisite 10 signed the candidate's petition, including the candidate himself.
But election law states that names on a candidacy petition must be an exact match with the name on the voter registration list. On that list, he's William W. Brown III. On the petition, including the spot where he signed as one of the 10 needed signatures, he was William Brown.
"That's how everybody knows me," Mr. Brown said. To prove his case, he brought a sign left over from his unsuccessful bid two years ago.
Earlier this month, he received a registered letter from Bonnie Brimmeier, an attorney who participated in many of the cases heard by Judge James yesterday and Wednesday. It informed him that he had been challenged by Naji Farah, a Republican voter in South Fayette.
Precisely why Mr. Farah chose to challenge the petition wasn't made clear in yesterday's hearing, and Ms. Brimmeier sternly deflected any questions about how she came to be representing him.
"I'm totally clueless why they picked on me," Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Farah's complaint also sought to throw out the petition because one of the signers abbreviated her street name from "Hickory Heights" to "Hickory Hgts."
Judge James dismissed that one out-of-hand.
But the confusion over names was enough, he said, to make the petition defective.
In other action yesterday, Judge James struck Joe Federowicz of Shaler from the GOP primary ballot for an at-large Allegheny County Council seat after finding that he lacked the necessary 500 signatures.
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