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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County encouraging the Allegheny County Division of Elections to revise its technical requirements relating to the form of nominating petitions filed by candidates for local elected office.
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Whereas, the power and duty to administer the conduct of elections within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is generally vested with the various counties, pursuant to the terms of the Commonwealth’s Election Code, 25 P.S. §2601, et. seq.; and
Whereas, while the Election Code does contain provisions governing, inter alia, the necessity of filing nominating petitions (at 25 P.S. §2867), the timing of and signing process for such petitions (at 25 P.S. §2868), the use of multiple sheets and need for affidavits to be filed by the circulator(s) of the petitions (at 25 P.S. §2869), and the number of signatures required for each elected office (at 25 P.S. §2872.1), it does not appear that the Code requires any specific size of paper upon which petitions nominating candidates for locally elected office must be printed, and this consideration is thus left to the discretion of the various counties; and
Whereas, while Federal and Commonwealth election procedures do allow for the use of letter sized (8 ½” x 11”) paper for nominating petitions, the Allegheny County Division of Elections currently utilizes nominating petitions for candidates for local office that are printed on legal sized (8 ½” x 14”) paper; and
Whereas, it is the judgment of Council that this use of differently sized petitions is unnecessary and unduly burdensome, insofar as it in practices often forces candidates for local office to pay for more expensive printing and photocopying fees than candidates for Federal or Commonwealth office; and
Whereas, it is further the judgment of Council that using larger sheets of paper for nominating petitions filed by candidates for local elected office in and of itself neither has a rational relation to nor provides any benefit to the legibility or content of such nominating petitions;
The Council of the County of Allegheny therefore hereby moves as follows:
Allegheny County Council hereby encourages and supports the Allegheny County Division of Elections in any efforts that it undertakes to allow for the use of letter sized (8 ½” x 11”) paper for nominating petitions filed by candidates for local elected office.