Feb 14, 2023 3 min read

Today is the first day candidates interested in running for various county, municipal or school board positions can begin circulating their nominating petitions ahead of the upcoming primary election.

Potential candidates and their supporters have three weeks to collect enough signatures from registered voters from their party to get on the ballot for the May 16 primary.

Elections directors in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties said Monday that they have candidate packages with information and petition forms for each race available at their individual offices, or they can be downloaded online.

Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said her staff made 200 packets each for municipal and school board elections, but they have not received as much interest in them as in previous years.

“I think because we have it available online, more people are taking advantage of that,” Ostrander said. “It could pick up … but we haven’t seen the volume that we’ve seen in previous years.”

Elections officials are urging candidates and supporters who circulate the nominating petitions to carefully follow the directions. People who sign the petitions supporting a candidate must be in the same registered party and live in the correct political subdivision for their signatures to count. The nominating petitions must be filed by the close of business on March 7.

Jason Mihal, who started as Greene County’s elections director on Jan. 17, said there is a variety of information available for people under the election office’s tab on the county’s website at www.co.greene.pa.us.

“It’s good information for the candidate and the electorate,” Mihal said.

While the petition process is beginning today, the elections offices have already sent out the mail-in and absentee ballot applications to people who signed up to be on the “permanent list” for that process. However, that does not mean those voters are automatically sent a ballot since they still must fill out the application to receive them for both the primary and general elections this year. The “permanent” option from the state just ensures they are guaranteed to receive an application, although people can still apply at their local elections office or online at vote.pa.gov.

“The ‘permanent list’ works more like an annual list,” Ostrander said. “You’re permanently on this list – unless you tell us otherwise – to receive an application every year. But in order to receive absentee or mail-in ballots, you have to complete the application we sent you and mail it back.”

Washington County sent out 30,000 such applications in late January while Fayette County mailed about 14,000 of them earlier this month. Information on how many “permanent list” applications were sent in Greene County was not available Monday.

The three-member board of commissioners in each of the three counties is up for election this year, along with several county row offices. School boards and municipal governments also will have races during this off-year election, along with some magisterial districts.