Three incumbent Palmerton Area School District board candidates will not be on the Democratic ticket in the primary election after a Carbon County judge ruled Friday to set aside their nominating petitions.

Sitting board members Earl Paules, Danielle Paules and Stacey Connell were aiming to cross-file on the Democratic and Republican tickets, but fellow PASD director Alyson Krawchuk filed objections with the Carbon County Board of Elections, arguing that the petitions in question were not properly circulated according to Pennsylvania election law.

Specifically, she contended that certain candidates personally solicited signatures without the required presence of the listed circulators.

Connell, and Earl and Danielle Paules will remain on the Republican ticket.

Erin Snyder, who is also an incumbent running for another term, will be on both tickets after evidence showed her petition circulator was present for the required 10 signatures by Democrats.

Hearing proceedings

Judge Roger Nanovic examined each petition to determine whether they adhered to Pennsylvania election laws, which require circulators for each party to be present when signatures are collected.

According to testimony and evidence presented, Connell’s petition listed Bruce Connell as the circulator, but he was not present when Krawchuk and others signed it.

“I’ve never met him,” Krawchuk stated when asked if he was present.

Similarly, Earl Paules and Danielle Paules’ petitions were circulated by Lacey Barachie, but testimony revealed that she was not present when at least two signatures were collected.

“For Brandon Mazepa and Sherry Haas’ signatures, she was not present,” Earl Paulus testified.

Snyder obtained 12 signatures from Democrats, 10 of which her circulator, Mazepa, was present to witness. Candidates need at least 10 valid signatures to be on the ballot.

Krawchuk testified that while Mazepa was in the room when she signed Snyder’s petition, he was not the person who asked her to do so.

“You do realize that if (Mazepa) signed a petition saying he was a circulator and was in fact not a circulator, that could be a criminal matter,” Nanovic asked Krawchuk.

“Yes sir,” she responded. “Policies are in place for a reason.”

Candidate reactions

Connell said Friday that her failure to follow the petition circulation rules was an honest mistake.

“I did not do this maliciously,” she said. “It was an honest mistake. Had Ms. Krawchuk thought enough of us sitting on the board together to have said to me, ‘Hey this is wrong,’ I would have taken the papers back and got the signatures when the circulator was present. If that had happened, we wouldn’t be here today.”

Earl Paules also expressed regret over the situation.

“There was no intent behind getting those two signatures in that way,” he said. “This is my third term, but I still don’t know all the rules. We’re volunteers out here trying to do the best we can for the school district.”

Krawchuk said she filed the objections because she is “a rule follower.”

“Policies are in place for a reason,” she told the judge.

During her testimony Friday, Krawchuk admitted to not knowing the rule requiring a circulator to be present for signatures of opposing party members until after the night she signed Connell and Snyder’s petitions.

A 2023 Commonwealth Court decision reaffirmed that candidates cannot act as circulators for petitions outside their registered party, even in cross-filing situations common in school board races.

Moving forward

After Friday’s hearing, Connell and both Earl and Danielle Paules said they hoped Palmerton Area voters would still support them in the primary despite not being on the Democratic ticket.

“We’d like the Republican voters to come out and support us, and Democrats can still write us in on that side as well,” Connell said.