HARRISBURG – State Rep. Matt Gabler (R-Clearfield/Elk) knows it’s hard enough to find candidates for local government positions and wants to make it a bit simpler for anyone who’s considering running for one particular office.
“Pennsylvania has 2,560 municipalities, many with differing laws and requirements when it comes to elections,” Gabler said. “My legislation is a commonsense fix for one of the inconsistencies facing anyone considering serving on their local school board.”
As with other offices, candidates for school board must obtain voter signatures on a nominating petition in order to get their name on a Primary Election ballot.
The number of signatures a potential school board candidate must gather, however, is not uniform around the Commonwealth or, in some cases, even within the same school district.
Gabler’s House Bill 227, which unanimously passed the House Thursday on a concurrence vote, will correct this inconsistency.
“I wrote House Bill 227 because of the challenges our existing law has created specifically in the DuBois Area School District,” added Gabler.
“Currently, some candidates for DuBois School Board must collect 100 signatures while others may secure a position on the ballot with only 10.”
“I encourage the governor to sign this bill to add clarity in our law and allow all school board candidates to access the ballot with 10 signatures,” added Gabler.
Gabler also agrees with Senate amendments made to his bills that will add protections to keep voters’ ballots secret.
“The recent municipal election featured new voting machines in many counties and resulted in stories of flaws in the voting process that exposed and threatened voter privacy,” said Gabler.
“The Senate amendments would, among other security measures, require the Department of State to set standards for local polling places to have proper supplies that ensure voters’ privacy is protected when casting ballots using scanning equipment.”
Questions about this legislation or any state-related matter may be directed to Gabler’s DuBois office at 814-375-4688, his St. Marys office at 814-781-6301 or Clearfield office at 814-765-0593.
