Write-ins
In February, I wrote a story about how the scarcity of local Democrats running for state offices in today's primary.
All of a sudden, I'm getting word of several local Democrats taking a shot at it through write-in campaigns. There's a chance that they can still end up on the November ballot. But frankly, the odds against them are rather steep.
Here's the deal. In order to get on the primary ballot in the first place, you need to get a bunch of nomination petition signatures from people in your district who are registered members of your party. For state Senate, the required number of signatures is 500. For the state House of Representatives, the number is 300.
But even if you don't get those petition signatures by the state's deadline, which is in February, you still have one more chance to run in the primary and get your name on the November ballot. You can do a write-in campaign.
But here's the catch. Not only do you have to beat anyone else running in your district from the same party; you also have to get a number of votes equal to the number of petition signatures you would have needed to be on the primary ballot in the first place. In other words, even if nobody's running against you, you would still need at least 300 write-in votes to be on the November ballot for the House, and 500 for the Senate.
So it turns out that a couple of local Republican state representatives who appeared to be unopposed in November have a couple of would-be challengers.
In the 94th House district, Democrat Deb Tillman is running a write-in campaign. If she gets 300 write-in votes, she'll take on incumbent state Rep. Stan Saylor, R-Windsor Township, in November. And Democrat Darrell Raubenstine is trying the same thing in the 93rd House district, presumably with the goal of eventually unseating incumbent state Rep. Ron Miller, R-Jacobus.
OK, did that explanation of election procedures confuse the heck out of you? Then take a few deep breaths and brace yourself. It's about to get Byzantine in here.
In the 33rd state Senate district, Bruce Tushingham of New Oxford is running a write-in campaign as a Democrat.
Two other candidates, Robert Curley of Waynesboro and Richard Alloway of Hamilton Township, are also conducting write-in campaigns as Democrats. If Curley's and Alloway's names sound familiar to you, maybe it's because they're listed on the ballot ... as Republicans!
No, I am not on mushrooms. Under Pennsylvania election law, you're allowed to simultaneously run on the ballot under one party, and do a write-in campaign under the other party. Maybe Curley and Alloway are hedging their bets. Maybe they just really like banquets and they want invitations to both the Republican and Democratic fall campaign dinners. Who knows?
