A candidate who lost a race for commissioner in Upper St. Clair's 5th Ward has challenged the election results.
Louis Oliverio filed a petition in Allegheny Common Pleas Court, contesting his loss to longtime Upper St. Clair police chief Ronald Pardini, who won the Nov. 3 general election by just two votes through a write-in campaign.
Common Pleas Judge Joseph M. James today heard testimony from lawyers for the men, who are both Republican.
Mr. Oliverio served one four-year term on the Upper St. Clair school board before running for the commission seat being vacated by Commissioner Russell Del Re, who successfully ran for an at-large seat on the commission. Mr. Pardini, 78, retired as police chief in June 2013, but said he felt he was ready for a new challenge and wanted to try his hand at local politics “to give back because I earned my living for 45 years from the township,” he said.
Mr. Oliverio is challenging 13 of the 392 write-in votes that put Mr. Pardini over the top. Mr. Oliverio, the only person on the ballot, garnered 390 votes.
Mr. Oliverio's lawyer, Michael Wojcik, argued that it was impossible to determine voter intent with so many various misspellings and missing spaces on some of the write-in votes. Because Mr. Pardini did not appear on the ballot, voters who wanted to elect him were required to enter his name into a touch-screen keyboard during voting.
Mr. Wojcik zeroed in on two write-ins, including “Jim Pardini” and “Ron Ardini,” saying the first was the name of a registered voter in Bridgeville and the latter was similar to the name Ron Arnoni — a district judge from Bethel Park.
“I think this is tough nut to crack to give this vote to Mr. Pardini,” Mr. Wojcik said of another write-in, “RonPrdinan.” During the same election, Mr. Wojcik won a seat on Commonwealth Court, where he is expected to soon be sworn in.
Mr. Pardini was represented by his son, lawyer David Pardini, who pointed out that elections officials were directed by the courts to make an effort to discern voter intent.
“Simple mistakes and misspelled names shouldn't be excluded — it would disenfranchise voters,” David Pardini said. “No system is perfect.”
Mark Wolosik, manager of the county bureau of elections, testified about how clerks decided which names should be counted as valid votes.
“We try to determine the intent of the voter," he said, by relying on practices they’ve used since the 1970s. Mr. Wolosik testified that there are no other registered voters named Ronald Pardini in Upper St. Clair.
Mr. Wolosik earlier told the Post-Gazette that typos and misspelling are common among write-in votes and ”there were probably 18 different variations“ of Mr. Pardini's name among write-in ballots.
Mr. Pardini also received 60 uncounted votes for at-large commissioner. Mr. Wolosik said those votes weren't counted “because they are distinct and different offices.” The township is governed by a seven-member board of commissioners — one commissioner from each of the five wards with two at-large seats.
Judge James did not indicate when he would make a decision, but lawyers said it would likely be within the next several days as commissioners are due to be sworn into office on Jan. 4.
Janice Crompton: jcrompton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1159.
First Published: December 21, 2015, 9:14 p.m.
