The elections board discussed the two issues Thursday, March 11, which stem from lawsuits the women filed.
The first ruling means Victoria Robertson will have her name listed on the GOP ballot in her Wayne Twp. precinct, despite being listed in official records as a Democrat. Elections officials said they initially disqualified her based on a strict interpretation of law by the state secretary’s office.
“After reviewing many pieces of various evidence from her long Republican voting history to her long service in the Republican Party as a central committee person, the board came to a conclusion that they felt that a mistake was made on the marking in the ... poll book,” said Betty McGary, board of elections director.
Robertson said — and the board and her precinct judge agreed — that she pulled a Republican ballot, but the poll worker mistakenly marked her as voting Democrat in the 2008 primary, making her a Democrat on paper.
In the second ruling, the board will vote Monday, March 15, whether to put Courtney Caparella-Kraemer back on the ballot. If they do, her West Chester Twp. precinct will have four candidates for GOP central committee.
The decision to vote is based on a March 2 e-mail to McGary from Kirk Walter, elections counsel at the secretary of state’s office, saying his advice to disqualify Caparella-Kraemer was based on “miscommunications.”
In her court filing, Caparella-Kraemer argued she was in the process of moving. She filed for her old precinct, then her new precinct, then withdrew.
Walter initially cautioned that she couldn’t run in two precincts at once, and that she hadn’t filed a change of address before her second petition, meaning she didn’t live at the new address. In the e-mail, he said he was wrong on both counts.
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