Three ballot challenges upheld

Goldsack loses Democratic ballot position; Wright retains her slot Milford — Judge Joseph Kameen on Tuesday disposed of four recent challenges to ballot petitions by upholding three of them and denying the fourth. Probably the highest profile decision came in Kameen’s upholding Elizabeth Forrest’s challenge of incumbent Delaware Valley School Board President Bob Goldsack’s petition for a Democratic Party ballot slot for the May primary election. Prefacing his decision, Kameen wrote that state policy calls for liberal interpretation of the Election Code so as not to deprive the voters or a candidate of their respective rights to run or chose. However, Kameen wrote, “The Court finds that the errors in this case are too numerous and too substantial to conclude that the Nominating Petition should be merely amended.” He detailed Goldsack’s omissions in the petition and found that, “Taken together, these amount to substantial and substantive defects in the Petition.” The decisions came following Friday hearings for challenges against Goldsack, school board candidate Patricia Wright, Lehman Tax Collector candidate Denise Jenious, and Lehman Supervisor candidate Andre Felder. Kameen found errors in Wright’s petition amendable and denied that challenge; but failures to make timely financial filings by Jenious and Felder were ruled to be “fatal defects,” and challenges were upheld. Goldsack, whose name remains on the Republican primary ballot, had himself filed challenges of ballot petitions of school board incumbents Sue Schor and Pam Lutfy. At the Friday hearing, Goldsack’s attorney Tom Mincer withdrew those challenges.