ALLENTOWN – A new federal lawsuit from Pennsylvania’s Libertarian, Constitution and Green parties argues the state requirements for collecting in-person signatures to qualify for a general election ballot are unconstitutional in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Those political parties, plus their candidates Steve Scheetz, Kevin Gaughen, Alan Smith, Timothy Runkle, Bob Goodrich and Justin Magill filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 14, versus Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Secretary Kathy Boockvar and Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathan M. Marks.
Pennsylvania designates “minor” political parties as those which receive less than 15 percent of registered voters statewide and “political bodies” as organizations that don’t overcome a given threshold of votes cast in the most recent general election.
Candidates of such parties are required to be witnessed collecting a certain number of voter signatures in person, in order to appear in the general election. For this year’s election, the deadline for which to collect the signatures is Aug. 3.
“The public health emergency caused by COVID-19 and the various ‘stay at home’ orders issued by Governor Wolf make it unlawful and practically impossible to gather signatures for nomination papers in Pennsylvania,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Governor’s new remote rules for notaries and witnesses demonstrate that requiring in-person contact to satisfy Pennsylvania’s petitioning requirements is not presently possible. Further, it will remain difficult if not practically impossible to collect signatures after emergency measures are lifted, because personal contact with large numbers of people during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to present an unacceptable risk to the public health.”
According to the plaintiffs, the usual requirements of signature collection should be waived due to the coronavirus pandemic and the level of danger that would be involved with obtaining them.
In the alternative, the plaintiffs argue that other methods of obtaining signatures like online petitioning, should be used in lieu of the tried-and-true, in-person method utilized prior to the pandemic.
“Pennsylvania law, together with the coronavirus outbreak and the Governor’s orders, cause injury-in-fact to plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ 1st and 14th Amendment rights,” the suit states.
For counts of violating the 1st Amendment and the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, the plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction and declaratory judgment prohibiting enforcement of Pennsylvania’s signature requirements for Minor Party and Political Body candidates for office for Pennsylvania’s Nov. 3, 2020 general election, to accept the plaintiff candidates’ nomination papers and placing their names on the ballot; costs; attorney’s fees and additional relief the Court deems just.
The plaintiffs are represented by Drew Gray Miller of Anderson & Labovitz, in Pittsburgh.
The defendants have not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 5:20-cv-02299
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com