You may recall when I wrote in a recent column advising candidates for public office to be diligent about following all of the required procedures, because if they didn’t they would find themselves on the outside looking in.

This is precisely what happened to three local candidates whose nominating petitions had deficiencies which, when challenged, knocked them off the primary ballots.

A fourth challenge was disallowed, setting up a repeat of a Democratic primary contest between the same two candidates who duked it out two years ago.

Commonwealth Court judges ruled the nominating petitions of these candidates were defective and they were removed from contention: Kim DiGaetano, a Republican in the 40th senatorial District, which includes all of Monroe County (Mario Scavello, incumbent); Beth Whitehall-Finch, a Republican in the 132nd House District in Lehigh County (Mike Schlossberg incumbent); and Anna Lopez, a Democrat in the 115th House District in part of Monroe County (Democrat Maureen Madden, incumbent). The nominating petitions of all three of these candidates were challenged by the incumbents and registered voters in the districts.

Whitehall-Finch’s disqualification means that five-term incumbent Democrat Schlossberg will be unopposed in the general election unless an independent candidate comes forth later in the year.

The judges also ruled that the nominating petition of Enid Santiago, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh, is valid after challenges from Schweyer and several voters in the district. After invalid signatures were disallowed, Santiago had 306 valid signatures, six more than required.

Two years ago, after much legal wrangling and accusations of wrongdoing in the vote count by Santiago, Schweyer, a four-term incumbent, prevailed by only 55 votes and went on to victory in November. Now, the two of them are seeking the Democratic nomination in the newly formed 134th District, which includes a large part of Allentown and other parts of Lehigh County.

This year’s petition-signing window was significantly tighter than normal because of court challenges to the decennial census reapportionment process, so all three of the disqualified candidates fell into the trap of not following the proper procedures when circulating their petitions. Most newcomer candidates were critical of the constricted window, saying that it favored incumbents who have more experience with the electoral process.

There are specific protocols, which, if not followed to the letter, jeopardize a candidacy before it really even gets going. Santiago, for example, criticized Schweyer for challenging her petitions, but this is misguided on her part. Any potential candidate who doesn’t follow the rules leaves herself or himself open to these challenges. There were 47 of these challenges statewide this time around, considerably more than usual, and election observers concluded that it was because of confusion with the shortened time for circulating petitions and the makeup of some new districts.

The fees and number of signers of a petition vary if a candidate runs for a federal, state, countywide or municipal office. In addition, there are requirements as to who is allowed to sign nominating petitions.

There are prescribed rules for circulating petitions, with deadlines strictly enforced. Each page of a petition must be properly documented, and each signature must conform to the official signature of the signee on file at the voter registration office. There are also restrictions on those who sign the petitions as to how many petitions they can sign during an election cycle and preciseness to designate the signee’s municipality.

For example, a Kidder Township signee might have a mailing address of Jim Thorpe but must indicate that he or she lives in Kidder Township and votes in this municipality. In municipal elections, this person cannot sign petitions for candidates running for office in Jim Thorpe borough.

Each page of a nominating petition contains three basic components: the preamble, which must include specific information about the candidate; the signature of electors, address and date of signature, and the affidavit of the person circulating the petition affirming that he or she is qualified to do so. Those signing the petition must be of the candidate’s party, must be eligible to vote and registered with the candidate’s party and must be a resident of the district.

To qualify for a spot on the ballot, a state Senate candidate must pay a $100 filing fee and have 500 bona fide signatures on nominating petitions, while a state House of Representatives candidate must pay a $100 filing fee and have 300 approved signatures.

So, as you can see, to run for office in Pennsylvania requires a candidate to navigate some significant potential pitfalls just to get on the ballot, after which the real fun begins - persuading voters.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.