No disenfranchisement in ballot challenge

With all respect to Charles & Mary Quilici, Robert Goldsack’s removal from the Democratic ballot in May has disenfranchised no one. There are still eight candidates running on the Republican ballot and seven on the Democratic ballot. Voters have lots of choices this year, even if none of the remaining DVDS candidates on either ballot are registered Democrats. As the Quilicis rightly point out, any Democrat who feels strongly about a candidate not appearing on the ballot may use their “write in” option. The action taken in the Goldsack matter has accomplished two things: 1) the playing field has been leveled for those candidates who did follow the rules but did not have the advantage of being the husband of the director of elections, Yolanda Goldsack; and 2) it has exposed for all to see the conflict of interest inherent in Mrs. Goldsack’s appointment, two years ago, to the post of director of elections. By law, Mrs. Goldsack is required to inspect and reject defective nominating petitions like the one submitted by her husband. Whether she accepted her husband’s flawed petition due to favoritism or incompetence is a question that the Pike County Board of Commissioners must now investigate. No defense of Mr. Goldsack in this matter can be discussed without addressing the root cause of Mrs. Goldsack’s failure to do her job properly. As for assisting the candidates who were removed from the ballot in Lehman Township, the Quilicis will be happy to know that the “Democratic leadership” has indeed been active for two weeks seeking an appeal to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of Democrat Andre Felder, candidate for Lehman Township supervisor. The appeal will be heard this week in Harrisburg. Unfortunately, there was little we could do about Denise Jenious’ case, but we are extremely hopeful that the Commonwealth Court will reverse Judge Kameen’s decision to remove Felder from the ballot. More to the point, had Mrs. Goldsack given correct and accurate information in the first place regarding the requirements that caused problems for the Lehman candidates, these various court actions would likely not have been brought. She was asked point blank about the filing of the Statement of Financial Interest. If she knew that crucial and very specific rule, she certainly did not recite it when asked. We have confirmed that many candidates all over Pike County were given inaccurate information similar to that given to the candidates from Lehman Township. If first-time candidates are to be held to the high standard of knowing and acting upon deadlines or risk being thrown off the ballot, can our director of elections, whose business requires her to know these things, be allowed to get by on less? Instead of criticizing Democratic leadership for inspecting the underlying fairness of our primary election, the Quilicis should instead be asking whether someone so careless or disregarding of details in something as simple as a nomination petition should be president of the school board and in charge of our children’s education. They should also be asking whether his wife should be allowed to continue as the county’s director of elections. These are questions that everyone n including the Pike County Board of Commissioners - should be asking. Elizabeth Forrest, PA State Democratic Committeewoman Dingmans Ferry