Independent candidate off Pa. ballot

The candidate admitted he helped voters fill out his nomination petitions.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An independent candidate for Congress does not have enough valid signatures on his nomination petitions to have his name on the November ballot, a state judge ruled.

Judge James R. Kelley of Commonwealth Court ruled that 1,542 of the more than 3,200 signatures Steven Porter collected were invalid because Porter helped some voters fill out his nomination petitions. Porter needed 2,171 valid signatures to be on the ballot.

Porter was seeking to unseat seven-term Republican U.S. Rep. Phil English of Erie, who represents the 3rd Congressional District. A portion of the district includes Mercer County.

Three Democratic voters sought to get Porter off the ballot because they were concerned he would siphon off votes from their candidate, Kathy Dahlkemper.

Porter, of Wattsburg, acknowledged at a hearing last week that he filled in at least the hometown and date next to more than 1,500 signatures.

Although the signatures themselves were valid and Porter did not intend to commit forgery or fraud, Judge Kelley said state election law requires whoever signed the petition to fill out all the other required information.

The judge said Porter filled out the hometowns and dates to ensure all the information he collected was correct, but, because of the election code’s “stringent requirements,” those efforts resulted in his name being removed from the ballot.

“This outcome is unfair and actually prohibits the well-established principle that the election code is to be liberally construed,” Judge Kelley wrote.

The judge also criticized the Legislature for not modifying state law “in regards to the increased procedural hurdles faced only by potential candidates without the resources and advantages of major party affiliation.”

In a statement posted on his Web site, Porter said he would continue to run as a write-in candidate and still hoped to be invited to debates. He said he filled out the information on the petitions without deception and with the full knowledge of the signers.

Porter has run unsuccessfully against English twice before. As a Democrat in 2004 and 2006, he drew at least 40 percent of the vote despite being badly outspent by English, whose district includes much of northwestern Pennsylvania.