Lawsuit Asks For PA State Senate Candidate's Removal From Ballot

ROSS TOWNSHIP, PA - A lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court seeks to remove the Democratic candidate in the 38th Senatorial District from the ballot in the Nov. 6 election. The lawsuit contends that Lindsey Williams does meet the Pennsylvania constitution’s four-year state residency requirement to hold the seat.

Williams disputes that assertion.

Williams, of West View, is running against Republican Jeremy Shaffer, a Ross commissioner, to replace outgoing Sen. Randy Vulakovich. Shaffer defeated Vulakovich for the GOP nomination in the May primary.

The lawsuit states that Williams voted in the November 2014 election in Maryland, where she was employed by the National Whistleblowers Center. She did not register to vote in Allegheny County until December 2014.

The lawsuit also notes that Williams received a speeding ticket indicating her vehicle was registered in Maryland on Nov. 10, 2014.

Williams showed WTAE-TV an Oct. 30, 2014 job offer from the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and her acceptance signature on Nov. 2, two days before that year's election. She told the station she immediately began the process of moving back to the city, where she had attended the Duquesne University School of Law.

“I had the intent to change my residency and a physical presence in the state, and that is what the law requires,” Williams told WTAE. “And so I am legally a resident eligible to run for office."

State GOP chairman Val DiGiorgio disagreed.

“Lindsey Williams running while ineligible to serve as a state legislator is, at best, demonstrating her ignorance of the PA Constitution and Pennsylvania law at worst, it is lying to the voters of Pennsylvania about her eligibility to run office,” DiGiorgio said in a statement. “Lindsey Williams is unfit to take the oath to defend the state constitution when she has already violated its provisions.”

While running for the Senate, Williams is on leave from her job as communications director for the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, which represents Pittsburgh Public School instructors. Shaffer is president of a software company specializing in bridge and transportation infrastructure.

The 38th District includes the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Highland Park and Lincoln-Lemington, as well as Ross, West View, Marshall, McCandless, Aspinwall, Blawnox, Brackenridge, Bradford Woods, Cheswick, Etna, Fox Chapel, Franklin Park, Millvale, Springdale, Tarentum, East Deer, Fawn, Frazer, Hampton, Harmar, Harrison, Indiana, O'Hara, Pine, Richland, Springdale and West Deer.

Photo via Williams For Senate Campaign. Used With Permission.

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