Hearings have been set in two challenges to our state Rep. Brian Sims’ nominating petitions.
On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Court set proceedings for 9:30 a.m. March 23 in Courtroom One of the Widener Building, 1339 Chestnut St. for consideration of a challenge by Walter Spencer and Sunanda Ghosh and another by Michael T. Connor and Andrew Allison. Both challenges contend that Sims does not have enough valid signatures on the petitions he filed last month to qualify him for the April ballot.
Such challenges are often filed in the weeks leading up to an election as a means of removing a candidate from the ballot.
By March 11, both sets of challengers are required to provide documentation on a digital-media device to Sims’ office of their signature-line challenges, if they are at issue. At the hearing, challengers have the opportunity to present witnesses and outline the bases for their objections to signature lines.