Do you love Philadelphia? Us too. Let’s be friends. Sign up for Billy Penn’s newsletter today.
Days before Tuesday’s primary election, a state judge ruled the city could move to change its vote-counting rules, posing a legal challenge.
The decision affects thousands of Democratic and Republican precinct committee positions in districts around Philadelphia that are contested in the election.
In February, the Electoral Commission decided to require candidates listed on the commission to obtain at least 10 votes to be elected. Critics say it is impossible in many areas where few registered Republicans are registered, and West Philly Republican District Leader Matt Wolfe sued on behalf of three candidates to block the change.
A Court of Common Pleas judge initially ruled in Wolfe’s case in tardy April, finding that state law only requires that the winner of a county commission race receive the most votes – even if it’s just one or two.
But lawyers representing the city and the Republican Party appealed, and on Friday, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough overturned the lower court’s ruling. She said it was too early to file a lawsuit because the Electoral Commission had not yet implemented the novel rule and no candidate had been blocked from taking office.
“The claims are based on anticipated future events that may never occur,” she wrote. “No specific action by the Board has created any hardship… that would justify judicial intervention at this time.”
Another legal challenge is coming
McCullough’s decision, however, is likely not the last word on the matter. Wolfe, an elections lawyer who previously ran for City Council, said he would go to court again whenever the Board of Elections declined to certify a write-in candidate as winner by fewer than 10 votes.
Wolfe said election results must be certified by June 8, but the council will likely act before then.
“[I] “they certainly plan to re-apply, probably on the day the commissioners make their declaration, assuming they don’t re-read the Electoral Code and do it the right way,” he said.
The dispute stems from an apparent conflict between various state election laws.
Lawyers for the city and Philadelphia’s Democratic and Republican city committees point to a law regulating write-in voting for various primary races. It says that for a candidate to win, their total votes must be at least equal to the number of petition signatures they would need to get on the ballot for that office.
For the district committee it is 10 signatures.
Wolfe, however, cites another part of the law that deals specifically with party positions. He says that these candidates only need “a plurality of votes” to be elected – that is, only the greatest number of votes, regardless of the number of votes.
The difference is that county committee elections are not actually primaries but actually “final elections” that will ultimately determine the winners, he and others say. This probably means they should not be subject to general primary election law.
A proxy battle for control of the party
Write-in voting policies have been repeatedly litigated over the years, in part because they play a role in determining who controls precinct committees and therefore controls the city’s party apparatuses and influential candidate endorsement decisions.
It is unclear why the Electoral Commission decided to change its policy this year, after decades of adhering to the principle of pluralism.
Wolfe says party leaders support the move because it would make it more arduous for independent candidates to gain seats on district committees and influence party decisions.
“Republican City Chairman Vince Fenerty has teamed up with Democratic Chairman Bob Brady to try to make it more difficult to elect a committee member,” he wrote in an email newsletter Sunday. “It seems [Fenerty] “is more interested in getting re-elected as chairman than in building a stronger Republican Party in Philadelphia.”
Largely due to the low number of registered Republicans in Philadelphia, many of the city’s 66 Republican precinct committees have many vacant positions or no members at all. Wolfe said enforcing the novel rule could result in even more vacancies.
Fenerty previously declined to comment on the lawsuit, as did the city’s legal department, the Board of Elections and an attorney for the Republican City Commission. A lawyer for the Democrats did not respond to a request for comment.
The board’s decision coincides with efforts by Wards that Work, a coalition of progressive groups, to combat political apathy and fill more Democratic precinct committee positions, which also have vacancies in many districts.
They encouraged residents to collect signatures on petitions to get on the ballot, or alternatively, run buy-in campaigns.
Democratic City Committee Chairman Bob Brady he told the Inquirer welcomes the wave of novel candidates while acknowledging that the party pays for mailers to support incumbents who face challenges from progressive candidates.
