Luzerne County Election Bureau schedules petition training for candidates

Luzerne County’s Election Bureau announced Monday it will be holding a training session for April 23 primary election candidates on how to fill out nomination petitions/papers.

The bureau set up the initiative “to be more helpful to candidates,” said county Election Director Eryn Harvey.

“I believe this will be the first petition training the bureau will hold for candidates. We want to make sure candidates understand everything they need to do in order to get on the ballot successfully,” Harvey said.

The training will be at 2 p.m. Monday (Jan. 22) in Room 301 at the county’s Penn Place Building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., in Wilkes-Barre.

This session also will be recorded and posted online under the election section at luzernecounty.org for candidates unable to attend, Harvey said.

It will review the nomination petition/paper process for local primary election candidates required to file their paperwork with the county election bureau, which includes Republican county committee members and candidates interested in serving on the proposed seven-member county Government Study Commission, Harvey said.

Other legislative offices on the primary ballot file nomination petitions with the Pennsylvania Department of State and should reach out to the state department if they need additional information on that process, Harvey said.

County Republicans seeking committee seats must present petitions containing at least 10 signatures to appear on the ballot in their voting precinct. The county party has approximately 360 committee seats throughout the county, records from past elections show.

Study commission candidates must file a different type of packet — nomination papers — containing at least 200 signatures from county registered voters, according to a home rule handbook compiled by the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, which falls under the Department of Community and Economic Development. Study commission nomination papers may not carry any political party designation or slogan because the seat is nonpartisan, it said.

While Pennsylvania has closed primaries, county voters of any affiliation or no affiliation will have an opportunity to vote on the study commission. Primary voters will simultaneously decide if they want to convene a commission and choose seven citizens to serve on the panel. The selected seven would only serve if the referendum passes.

The window for primary election candidates to collect signatures is between the thirteenth and tenth Tuesdays before the primary, or from Jan. 23 to Feb. 13.